The Latest: Activists give anti-corruption vow mixed welcome

Just six countries, including Britain, have agreed to publish registers of who really owns companies in their territories — a key goal of anti-corruption groups.

A global anti-corruption summit is extracting a plethora of promises from nations to open up corporate records, quash money laundering and end bribery in public contracts.

Just six countries, including Britain, have agreed to publish registers of who really owns companies in their territories — a key goal of anti-corruption groups.

[...] Allan Bell, chief minister of the Isle of Man — a British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea — says there won't be real progress "unless the United States joins in this international agreement" and makes its own tax havens, such as Delaware, more open.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says corruption is a global "pandemic" and as big a threat to nation states as terrorism.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has gathered leaders, civil-society groups and representatives of banks and financial institutions at Thursday's conference with the goal of producing a strong global declaration against financial wrongdoing.