International Flagship Study - In 2015, the FFGI launched a flagship  about transparency and accountability in the Financial Sector.The report assessed and scored four key aspects: publication of policies and risk management; disclosure of investments; reporting on engagement with companies and voting behaviour; and stakeholder dialogue. The report also scored those banks on their transparency on tax-related issues, including the extent to which they provided detailed, country-by-country information on key indicators on transparency and tax.

 How did the banks score?

• The report places assessed banks in three categories: leaders, followers and laggards. Only three banks scored above six out of ten on FFG’s Transparency and Accountability theme, earning their place in the category of leaders: ASN Bank in the Netherlands, which scored 8.1 points, followed by CitiBank (as for Indonesia of this US-based bank, 6.8) and Van Lanschot, which operates in the Netherlands and Belgium (6.1). 
• A second set of scores presented in the report relate to transparency on taxation. With increasing public demand for combating tax abuses, and moves to tighten international rules in this regard, the Fair Finance Guide highlights how banks are performing in this extremely important area. The scores on taxation transparency are based on the banks’ 2013 Annual Reports, before the first obligations to report country-by-country on tax payments came into effect in Europe in 2014. 

READ THE FULL REPORT