Canadian Faith Groups, Global Faith Leaders and Jubilee USA Network Arrive in Canadian Rockies to Deliver 150,000 Petitions Urging G7 Leaders to Tackle Debt Crises

Friends,

Almost half of the world’s population lives in countries that spend more on debt payments than on health, education and social services combined. In celebration of the Jubilee Year, we and our global partners and major faith leaders have launched 5 years of campaigns to win debt relief, economic aid and changes to the global economy to lift the vulnerable.

As members of Jubilee across the United States, Canada and the world head to Calgary to move the G7 presidents and prime ministers meeting near Calgary, please sign the Jubilee 2025 petition that we'll deliver to G7 leaders next week.

For the next 5 years, at every G7, G20, IMF and major United Nations meetings, we and partners around the world will lead pilgrimages to move world leaders on these crucial economic policies.

Please join more than 120,000 people around the world to move the G7, G20, IMF, UN Congress, White House and world leaders.

Thanks for taking action. For more information, read our Executive Director Eric LeCompte's recent letter in the Financial Times, his thoughts in Reuters and our Jubilee 2025 launch page.

Be well,

Aldo Caliari
Senior Director of Policy and Campaigns
Jubilee USA Network
[email protected]

www.jubileeusa.org/support-us

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was recently quoted by Devex Invested on the G20 Common Framework and the issue of debt ahead of the FfD4 in Seville, set to take place later this month. Read an excerpt below or the full article here. 

Devex Invested: What we’re watching at Financing for Development in Seville

By Jesse Chase-Lubitz

"Debt is expected to be the flashpoint issue in Seville. Today, many of the world’s poorest countries have few options for restructuring crippling debt burdens. The Group of 20 major economies’ Common Framework for Debt Treatments has helped just a handful of countries, and is increasingly criticized for delays, power imbalances, and a lack of trust.

Very few cases have successfully moved through the Common Framework. “Even though two-thirds of African countries, as well as low-income countries, are spending more on debt than on social services, education, and health combined, they continue to make payments because they don’t feel the framework will actually help them to quickly get out of the crisis,” Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, told me during a Devex Pro event last week."

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was featured in the Financial Times, writing on the US role in relieving unpayable poor country debt. Read the article below or here. 

Letter: Relieving poor country debt is flagship US cause 

By: Eric LeCompte

"Alan Beattie’s developing country debt diagnosis (“The papal call for debt relief that might not be needed”, Opinion, May 15) misses key parameters of the serious debt crises and distress that too many countries face.

African and low-income countries spend on debt service two-thirds more than their combined spending on health, education and social protection. Similar to Jubilee 2000, at the core of the Jubilee 2025 Catholic and interfaith leaders’ call for debt relief is the moral consideration that the principle of pacta sunt servanda has limits when it comes at the expense of countries’ investments on protecting their people, especially the most vulnerable. This is why the three previous popes focused on debt as one of the greatest threats of our time.

Pope Francis’s call, which will be continued by Pope Leo, hardly moves the goalposts from what was considered a debt crisis at the beginning of the millennium when Pope John Paul II called for debt relief. Forty-six developing countries pay today more than half of their revenue in debt service. The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries and Multilateral Debt Relief initiatives came about — and rather late at that — as a response to debt service levels that were less than half of the levels we face now.

The speculation about the Trump administration’s response seems premature. It was President Trump who in his first term led the way on debt relief for the poorest countries, a G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative and the Common Framework. While not perfect, they were highly inclusive, innovative and pragmatic ways to offer debt forgiveness in a difficult new creditor landscape.

In fact, relieving unpayable poor country debt became and remains a flagship bipartisan cause in the US for sensible reasons. Both Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Republican Congressional leadership highlighted the need to tackle global debt at the recent IMF meetings. Finding predictable and reliable mechanisms to resolve sovereign debt crises is in the interest of not just debtors, but also creditors.

Taxpayers, business, consumers, workers and savers in economies of creditor countries stand to benefit as much as debtor countries. Debt relief advances three priorities that we know our US administration holds dear: making America safer and more prosperous, making foreign assistance transparent and accountable, and securing other countries’ participation in this effort."

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was recently featured in Devex, following his participation in a Devex Pro Briefing on June 3rd, where experts discusssed the international debt system ahead of the Fourth Financing for Development Conference (FfD4).

Read an excerpt below or the full article here with a recording of the full briefing.

Calls for overhaul of global debt architecture intensify ahead of FfD4

By: Jesse Chase-Lubitz 

“Very few cases have moved through the Common Framework,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network. “Even though two-thirds of African countries, as well as low-income countries, are spending more on debt than on social services, education, and health combined, they continue to make payments because they don’t feel the framework will actually help them to quickly get out of the crisis.”

Jubilee USA's comment submission on the FinCEN's Interim Final Rule for the Corporate Transparency Act. 

Click here to read this submission on the official consultation website or download a pdf here.

May 27, 2025

Director Andrea Gacki
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)
U.S. Department of Treasury
P.O. Box 39
Vienna, VA 22183

Re: Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirement Revision and Deadline Extension (FINCEN–2025–0001, OMB control number 1506–0076 and RIN 1506– AB49)

Jubilee USA Network appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Interim Final Rule regarding Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirement Revision and Deadline Extension (the “Interim Final Rule”).

We are an alliance of more than 75 US organizations and 750 faith communities working with 50 Jubilee global partners to build an economy that serves, protects and promotes the participation of the most vulnerable. We are concerned with how financial secrecy, corruption and tax evasion are connected to economic prosperity and poverty in the United States and abroad. In particular, we have witnessed how anonymous shell companies have facilitated exploitation of vulnerable communities and supported corrupt regimes in the developing world. The Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) introduces transparency into otherwise anonymous corporate structures by requiring companies to report their true, “beneficial” owners to a secure directory housed at FinCEN.

We promoted and worked towards passage of this legislation for more than 10 years. During that time we built support with members of Congress, senators and Administrations from both parties. We made this investment because our members consider this legislation essential to 1) curb the theft of debt relief aid, which is essential to reduce food and fuel prices in the US, support American jobs and exports, and make our country safer, 2) stop ways that human traffickers hide and make profits, 3) prevent the exploitation of vulnerable communities in the United States through Medicaid and Medicare fraud, 4) reveal theft from corrupt foreign government officials’ use of development aid and public monies, and 5) help raise revenue in the developing world.

We welcome Secretary Bessent’s recent statements underscoring US support for sovereign debt sustainability, transparency and improved restructuring processes for countries in debt distress, cornerstones of longstanding US bipartisan policy. However, if authorities and well-connected individuals in developing countries can access the vast US financial system to hide their gains from corrupt and non-transparent debt contracts, including with China and other bilateral creditors, the US ability to pursue right-headed debt policy is compromised. We wish to highlight that debt relief and responsible lending are especially relevant in this Jubilee year in which Pope Francis made debt relief and economic aid for the poorest the focus. In this, he followed on the footsteps of Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI, in a move that Pope Leo XIV will now continue.

Our members have an interest in seeing strong, effective rules that maximize the Corporate Transparency Act’s potential to contribute to all of the above purposes. We commented in the FinCEN rulemaking processes leading to the rule on Beneficial Ownership Information Reporting Requirements and the Beneficial Ownership Information Access and Safeguards, and Use of FinCEN Identifiers for Entities.

The same spirit informs our formulation of responses to the current call for comments.

We respectfully ask that the Treasury Department withdraws the Interim Final Rule.

The Interim Final Rule narrows the scope of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) to apply only to certain foreign companies that register to do business in the United States. It exempts all domestic companies, as well as all beneficial owners of covered foreign companies who are U.S. persons.

We are extremely concerned that, in so doing, the Interim Final Rule significantly undermines the purpose and operations of the CTA to the point of making it almost innocuous.

The opacity provided by anonymous “shell companies” that nefarious actors from all over the world can register in the U.S. enables them to evade and violate laws, facilitates crime, defangs critical US foreign and domestic policies, and endangers national security.

Corrupt foreign officials, transnational cartels, China and North Korea-linked companies, and foreign fraudsters, are among the many examples of foreign persons and entities that registered U.S. shell companies. Relying on the anonymity of such structures, they can take advantage of the U.S. financial system and its tools to achieve their illicit objectives.

This is why Congress, in passing the CTA, underscored its concern with the “ownership of corporations, limited liability companies, or other similar entities in the United States” (bold added) by “malign actors.” According to the statute, “Federal legislation providing for the collection of beneficial ownership information for corporations, limited liability companies, or other similar entities formed under the laws of the States (bold added) is needed to [...] better enable critical national security, intelligence, and law enforcement efforts to counter money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and other illicit activity.”

When the Interim Final Rule opens a sweeping exemption, not envisioned in the law, for all domestic companies and beneficial owners of foreign companies, it reduces the CTA’s scope of application by 99.8%.

While we understand there are some concerns about potential impact of the legislation on legitimate activity, small businesses and law-abiding citizens, these concerns received ample hearing and discussion during the legislation process and led to the creation of 23 well-tailored exemptions that the statute already contemplates.

We believe FinCEN’s rulemaking can find further ways to refine implementation of the law in order to make it more targeted and effective, while avoiding a clash with the CTA’s letter and intent.

Conclusion

Corporate transparency will have a major impact in reducing international corruption and crime in the US and abroad, thereby protecting vulnerable populations and their access to debt relief-freed and other resources for building schools, hospitals, and the infrastructure necessary for development. Additionally, the collection of beneficial ownership information will make it harder for those stealing from the most vulnerable to use the United States financial system as a safe haven to hide their money. Jubilee USA Network looks forward to working with FinCEN during its rulemaking on the Corporate Transparency Act to ensure this mission is achieved. In closing, we thank you again for your consideration of these comments. For any questions or clarifications on our comments please feel free to contact Aldo Caliari at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Aldo Caliari
Senior Director of Policy and Strategy

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was quoted in National Catholic Reporter on his reaction to the election of Pope Leo XIV on May 8th. Read an excerpt below, or the full article here.

'Floored, stunned and full of hope': Reactions to election of Pope Leo XIV

By: Brian Fraga, Brian Roewe and Heidi Schlumpf

"Eric LeCompte, executive director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network, described Leo XIV as being "a strong voice for the Catholic Church's social mission to address poverty."

"The selection of the name of Leo XIV is a special acknowledgement of the need to support the poor and workers," said LeCompte. He added in a prepared statement that the new pope has "a strong sense of how important the global Church is to address global challenges."

Read more here.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was recently featured in The Globe and Mail following the election of Pope Leo XIV. Read the full article here.

Robert Francis Prevost becomes Pope Leo XIV, first American to hold papacy in Catholic Church’s history

By: Eric Reguly

Read the full article here.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was quoted in The Guardian following the election of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost and his choice to take the name Leo XIV. Read an excerpt below, or the full article here.

Robert Francis Prevost becomes Pope Leo XIV as cardinals elect first US pontiff

By: Angela Giuffrida and Harriet Sherwood in Vatican City and Sam Jones

"Eric LeCompte, the executive director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network, who advises Vatican and Catholic church leadership said he expected Leo to “follow the path that Francis set to build a more inclusive and transparent Church”.

“The selection of the name of Leo XIV is a special acknowledgment of the need to support the poor and workers,” LeCompte added.

The new pontiff will have many urgent issues to address. A priority will be to strengthen the church’s unity amid differing views and expectations within the institution and growing polarisation in the wider world.

The pontiff plays an important role on the international stage, aiming to ensure that religion does not become a faultline."

Read more here.

Washington DC –  Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost was elected head of the Catholic Church and takes the name Pope Leo XIV, on Thursday, May 8th.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development group Jubilee USA Network, who advises Vatican and Catholic Church leadership, releases the following statement:

"Cardinal Prevost is a strong voice for the Catholic Church's social mission to address poverty.

"As Prevost takes the name Leo XIV, he will follow the path that Francis set to build a more inclusive and transparent Church.

"The selection of the name of Leo XIV is a special acknowledgement of the need to support the poor and workers. 

"Leo XIII, the previous Pope Leo, was the author of the Encyclical Rerum Novarum which became the Church's primary teaching on the rights of workers and those who struggle for a better life and to live in dignity.

"The new Pope has a strong sense of how important the global Church is to address global challenges.

"Coming from the Augustinian religious order, Leo XIV will bring a commitment to building a world where we all have enough.

"Pope Francis followed previous Popes in establishing debt relief to address poverty as a key focus for the Church's Jubilee holy year that's taking place this year. Pope Leo XIV will continue that focus for this holy year."

Pope Francis Remembered During Meetings

Washington DC – IMF, World Bank, G20 and G7 Spring meetings concluded this past weekend.

The IMF announced an almost one percentage point cut to economic growth for the next two years while warning future forecasts could see more growth cuts.

"These meetings were full of bad news for the economy,” said Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of the religious development organization Jubilee USA Network and who monitors the IMF and World Bank. "The analysis from these meetings is the most troubling we've seen in decades.”

While developing countries pay $1.4 trillion annually servicing debt, payments of the poorest countries quadrupled in the last 10 years. According to the IMF, average incomes in the poorest 32 of those countries have barely changed in the last 15 years.

“Trade issues, aid cuts and high interest rates are increasing debt problems and crises,” added LeCompte. “Little was done at the meetings to address severe challenges for the global economy."

In statements delivered during the meetings, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent put to rest fears that the US would disengage from the IMF and World Bank.

"Bessent made many positive contributions to thie meetings,” stated LeCompte. “One of Bessent's most important statements was that the US wants to tackle global debt problems before they become crises."

As the meetings opened last week, on April 21st, Pope Francis passed away. Francis had called for debt relief to be a focus of the holy year of Jubilee 2025.

"Pope Francis was remembered at almost every gathering of world leaders throughout the week,” shared LeCompte. "We can honor the memory of Pope Francis by moving forward his calls for debt relief and creating new processes to address debt crises."

The IMF and World Bank hold their second meeting of the year in October. 

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the election of Pope Leo XIV here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMF, World Bank, G20 and US Treasury Meetings and IMFC and Development Committee Meetings here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on Pope Francis' funeral, legacy and upcoming conclave here. 

Read Jubilee USA's statement on Pope Francis' views of IMF, World Bank and G20 Spring Meetings here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the G20 ministerial meeting here.

Read Jubilee USA's press release on the IMF Global Financial Stability Report and World Economic Outlook report here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMF Global Financial Stability Report here.

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the IMF World Economic Outlook report here. 

Read Jubilee USA's press release on IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva's curtain-raiser speech here. 

Read Jubilee USA's statement on the passing of Pope Francis who had focused this year's Church efforts on debt relief and IMF reform here.

Eric LeCompte, Executive Director of Jubilee USA was quoted in Reuters, where he spoke on the debt discussions had during the recent IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings. Read an excerpt below, or the full article here.

IMF-World Bank meetings end with little tariff clarity, but economic foreboding

By David Lawder, Karin Strohecker and Andrea Shalal

"Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, a faith-based nonprofit group advocating debt relief, said that the IMF's forecasts were clearly aimed at preventing market panic, even as officials in private meetings expressed concerns about new debt crises emerging.

"It was a do-nothing kind of week," LeCompte said, adding that debt discussions were inconclusive and overshadowed by tariff talks."

Read more here.