International anti-corruption leader Transparency International (TI) is the newest member to join the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) announced today.

“GFI is delighted to welcome TI on board at this momentous and high-stakes time in global finance and development,” said GFI director Raymond Baker.  “For more than two decades TI has led the fight against corruption by raising awareness, and empowering action to promote transparency in elections, public administration, and business.”

Launched in January 2009, the Task Force is led by GFI and is a unique global coalition of civil society organizations and more than 50 governments which advocates for greatly improved transparency and accountability in the global financial system.  TI will join Task Force members such as Tax Justice Network and Global Witness as well as representatives from the governments of Norway, France, Germany, Spain, and Chile.

The Task Force advocates five priorities in addressing the current global financial crisis, each one focusing on transparency and extending initiatives that have already begun to be put into place:

1. Curtailment of mispricing in trade imports and exports;
2. Country-by-country accounting of sales, profits, and taxes paid by multinational corporations;
3. Confirmation of beneficial ownership in all banking and securities accounts;
4. Automatic cross-border exchange of tax information on personal and business accounts;
5. Harmonization of predicate offenses under anti-money laundering laws across all Financial.

I am delighted to be a member of this task force.