The Institute for Global Financial Integrity

The role of The Institute for Global Financial Integrity (TIGFI), as a private, independent and impartial nonprofit organization, is to serve as a Center of Excellence and Forum on all matters pertaining to ethical conduct and integrity in business standards and practices in the global financial sector, national financial centers and jurisdictions. The core purpose of TIGFI is to support and promote professional excellence and ethical business standards and practices from within the global financial sector, national financial centers and jurisdictions. Its activities fall within the realm of corporate social responsibility and of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

TIGFI is open to and encourages memberships and partnerships for all bodies within and outside the global financial sector. Members and partners sought include banks, other financial services and service providers to the financial sector as well as government and nongovernment organizations committed to improving the global financial sector’s corporate financial governance and market integrity.

The Institute for Global Financial Integrity is driven (a) by openness to constructive dialogue within and outside the global financial sector and (b) by a collaborative and supportive spirit amongst its members and partners. As a Forum, TIGFI shall hold conferences, meetings, workshops and other events on matters pertaining to corporate financial governance and market integrity. As a Center for Excellence, TIGFI shall engage with its members and partners in empirical research through its highly qualified and outstanding research professionals from industry and academe. The research shall provide publicly available reports and recommendations on corporate financial governance and market integrity issues. A primary mission of TIGFI shall be to develop an ethical code of conduct of the global financial sector that will serve as a standard and benchmark for all bodies engaged in financial and related activities.

TIGFI’s Center of Excellence and Forum shall focus on the Four Core Areas that fundamentally affect the global financial sector. The Four Core Areas are: (1) regulation, oversight and enforcement of such regulation, (2) compliance with law and regulation, governance and social responsibility, (3) money laundering, and (4) funding of bribes, organized crime and terrorism. Core Areas 1 and 2 pertain to the environments in which the global financial sector, national financial centers and jurisdictions operate. Core Areas 3 and 4 pertain to financial market activities that are either criminal in nature or contrary to basic moral values.  In this context, the critical challenges facing the global financial sector in its corporate financial governance and market integrity concern the combat against crime (organized and serious crimes, fraud and tax evasion), the combat against corruption (both sanctioned and non sanctioned by law or void of enforcement of existing law, including bribery), the combat against money laundering per se, and the combat against the funding of bribes, organized crime and terrorism.

The principles of integrity governing the activities and behavior of the Luxembourg Institute for Global Financial Integrity are those of fairness, transparency, responsibility and accountability. The respect of these principles is fundamental to the global financial sector’s business behavior and to the regulatory, oversight and enforcement actions and activities of national financial centers and jurisdictions.

TIGFI fully supports the paradigm of the competitive market economy. The paradigm is ground in fair, transparent, responsible and accountable competition. It requires active government policy geared to offset market abuses and systemic risk without imposing excessive burdens of rules, regulations and costs upon business.