The G8 are meeting in L'Aquila, Italy from July 8-10, 2009 to discuss the global financial crisis and international financial regulations, among other things. This page provides you with resources to ensure that the world leaders address the critical need for transparency in the financial system.

►Just released: G8 Leaders' Joint Statement

►Just released: The Chair's Summary of the Summit

►G8 Agenda: What's still to come (Guardian)

Hopes | Charts | Reports | Resources | Links

The Shadow Banking System

We may be at a rare moment when the interests of rich and poor countries are synonymous.
 
At the heart of the current worldwide economic crisis is a lack of transparency in the global financial system. This is the end product of a half century of creating and expanding a shadow financial structure comprising tax havens, secrecy jurisdictions, disguised corporations, anonymous trust accounts, and fake foundations. Also included in this system are trade mispricing mechanisms, money laundering techniques, and gaps left in western laws that facilitate the movement of corrupt, criminal, and commercially tax-evading money across borders. Some estimates suggest that as much as half of global trade and capital movements pass through this shadow financial system.

Continue Reading...

Informational Charts

To find a number of informational charts from data collected by GFI and others, visit our chart page here.

Links

Additionally you may find the following links to be helpful:

• G8 Live (G8 Research Group)
• G8 Summit 2009 Magazine
  
• Richard Murphy's Blog
  
• The Official G8 Summit Website
  
• G8 FAQs
• G8 Information Centre (U. Toronto)
  
• Diplomatic Courier Coverage
  
• FT G8 Coverage
• Guardian G8 Coverage
• G8 on Wikipedia
  

 Hopes for the Summit

The current economic crisis has many causes, but boosting transparency will go a long way in addressing the problem.  We must do away with the opacity and secrecy in the international financial system which has enabled irresponsible and criminal financial practices to run rampant while frustrating attempts to regulate international business and manage national finances.  In that light GFI makes the following recommendations for the G8 leaders improving transparency:

• Country by Country Reporting: Require country-by-country reporting of subsidiaries, sales and profits by multinational corporations, a move underway for some types of entities operating in the European Union.

For more information on country by country reporting click here...

 

• Beneficial Ownership: Require that beneficial ownership of all corporations, trusts and foundations be recorded in publicly available records, a step already recommended by the Financial Action Task Force.

For more information on beneficial ownership click here...

 

• Automatic Exchange: Automatic exchange of information with tax authorities in other countries on interest and dividends received by non-resident individuals, corporations, and trusts.  The E.U. already requires this in a more limited scope as part of its Savings Tax Directive.

For more information on automatic exchange of information click here...

 

 

 Reports

• Norway: Tax havens and development
  
• Task Force: Country-by-Country Reporting: Holding Multinational Corporations to Account Wherever They Are
• Richard Murphy: Information Exchange: what would help developing countries now?
  
• Global Financial Integrity: Illicit Financial Flows from Developing Countries: 2002-2006
• Global Witness: Undue Diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes 
• Christian Aid: False profits: robbing the poor to keep the rich tax-free (2009)

Additional Resources

• GFI Director Raymond Baker's G8 Magazine Op-Ed, Addressing the Global Shadow Financial System
  
• G8 Leaders' Joint Statement
• The Chair's Summary of the Summit
• G8 Expert Accountability Report: Implementation Review of G8 Anti-Corruption Commitments
• Global Assets in Tax Havens
• Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development's "The Case for Global Financial Transparency"
• GFI G20 Coverage Section