Institute for Financial Transparency

Needham, Massachusetts – Richard Field, Director of the Institute for Financial Transparency, issued the following statement announcing the formation of the Transparency Label Initiative^TM:

“Since the 1930s, the idea investors should have access to all the useful, relevant information in an appropriate, timely manner so they can know what they own or are thinking of buying has been a cornerstone of the global financial system. Unfortunately, in the run-up to and aftermath of the global financial crisis that began on August 9, 2007, this did not occur and still does not occur. Why has it not occurred despite legislation making it the government’s responsibility to ensure this information is made available? It has not occurred because Wall Street, which benefits from opacity, has come to dominate the process by which financial disclosure regulations are created.

Today, I am please to announce the formation of the investor led Transparency Label initiative^TM. The Initiative brings transparency to the currently opaque corners of the global financial system. It uses a label to distinguish between securities and financial benchmarks that are transparent and unrigged and those, like sub-prime mortgage-backed securities and Libor interest rates, that are opaque and rigged. By making this distinction, investors can do a better job of managing risk by concentrating their investment in transparent, unrigged securities and markets while avoiding blindly gambling with opaque, rigged securities and markets.”

for more: