WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors were slated to discuss the so-called Panama Papers in Washington, DC on April 13-14.
"The real key is going to be if [G20] countries are going to implement the standards that they have already agreed to through the FATF [Financial Action Task Force] in a way that is meaningful, aggressive and done in a way that is collective in nature such that first movers aren’t penalized," Poncy told Sputnik on Thursday after a conference with Panamanian finance officials at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
The G20, Poncy continued, has the political muscle to task technocrats to develop solutions to address global tax evasion issues, but the real key is collective action in enforcing existing standards.
In the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, he added, the US Treasury Department will likely have to work with a wide range of countries to push systemic reforms and then implement the financial transparency commitments that these nations have already signed up for.
From 2007 to 2013, Poncy co-chaired the policy working group for FATF, which is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to set international legal and regulatory standards for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes.
