Stamp out bank secrecy, corruption watchdog says

Graft watchdog Transparency International hit out at rich countries over shady banking practices on Tuesday as it published its annual rankings naming and shaming the world's most corrupt nations. The group slammed developed countries that are otherwise relatively free from corruption for allowing dirty money to be parked in their banking systems and said that no region in the world could claim to be corruption-free.
"Corrupt money must not find safe haven. It is time to put an end to excuses," said the Berlin-based group's head Huguette Labelle. "Even industrialised countries cannot be complacent: the supply of bribery and the facilitation of corruption often involve businesses based in their countries," the report said. In the wake of the financial crisis, the Group of 20 (G20) industrialised countries turned up the heat on tax havens, targeting rich countries with long-held banking secrecy laws like Liechtenstein and Switzerland.