Gillian Tett is missing the glaringly obvious answer to enhancing corporate transparency

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Gillian Tett, who is usually so on the ball, has written this in the FT this morning:

In recent months, following the leak of the Panama Papers, there has been much talk about the lack of global corporate transparency. Pressure is now growing for governments and companies alike to become more transparent about corporate entities, even where offshore centres are involved.

In all this, a crucial point is often forgotten: simply amassing data will not solve the problem of transparency. What is also needed is a way for analysts to track the connections that exist between companies scattered across different national jurisdictions.
Tett goes on to praise the work of Open Corporates - and I do too: it is incredibly important.  But, she utterly fails to mention the very obvious best source of  new data on this issue, which would, of course, be country-by-country reporting.
Whilst much of the focus of discussion on country-by-country reporting is on the accounting information, it is  also vital to realise that it requires that any multinational company disclose precisely in which jurisdictions it has operations, and what the names of its companies operating in those places are.  There will be little better, or more effective, way of finding out what is going on in those places as a consequence than the production of public country-by-country reports,  which would also have the advantage of having figures attached to the data.
I am curious as to the reasons for her overlooking this obvious solution. Her support would be welcome.

 


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