Contact: Monique Perry Danziger, 202-293-0740

Washington, DC —International poverty eradication group Christian Aid is the newest member to join the Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development, Global Financial Integrity (GFI) announced today.

“For more than sixty years Christian Aid has been a leader in poverty eradication,” said GFI director Raymond Baker.   “By providing humanitarian relief, advocating long-term development strategies, and championing social justice Christian Aid has played a pivotal role in improving the quality of life for the world’s poor.  They join the Task Force at an especially critical time for poverty alleviation and economic development and we are pleased to welcome them aboard,” said Baker.

Christian Aid joins Task Force members Tax Justice Network, Transparency International, Global Witness, and Global Financial Integrity, representatives from the Governments of Norway, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and Chile and the 55-member Paris-based Leading Group on Solidarity Levies for Development.

Launched in January 2009, the Task Force 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.  The next meeting of the Task Force will take place in September, 2009 in Washington, D.C.

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 Action Task Force cooperating countries.

###

The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development addresses inequalities in the global financial system that penalize billions of people, and advocates for improved transparency and accountability.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 at 7:51 am and is filed under Front Page, Media, Press Releases.