Finland

As this is the festive issue of MLB, it seems appropriate to look at the anti-money laundering regime in Finland. (The more precise of you will no doubt comment that Father Christmas actually lives in Lapland, which is in northern Norway, but as Norway is not a member state of the EU, this is the closest we are going to get to the residence of the jolly red man. It remains to be revealed whether his time-defying cross-border movements at the end of December are in fact a fiendishly clever currency smuggling operation, but we will let you know if any evidence surfaces) – Sue Grossey.

Finland has the distinction of ranking number one (ie, least corrupt) in this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), collated by Transparency International. The CPI ranks 102 countries in terms of the degree to which corruption (defined as “the abuse of public office for private gain”) is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians.With a CPI score of 9.7 out of 10, Finland beat Denmark into joint second place. The next highest ranking EU member state was Sweden, in joint fifth place. The UK came tenth, with a score of 8.7. Finland also led the CPI in 2001 (with a score of 9.9) and in 2000 (a perfect 10). It could therefore be argued that standards are slipping, although it is still quite an achievement to be perceived as the least corrupt nation in the world.