On Dec. 6, 2012 Mongolia’s Cabinet ministers attended a meeting with the members of the National Security Council where they were informed of the Council’s views regarding the management of $1.5 billion brought in by a recent sale of the government’s first international bond. All talk in town on that day was about this foray into global capital markets, the "responsible" use of the proceeds, and their timely and full repayment. Also on Dec. 6, the country was absorbing news that in the 2012 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released the day before by Transparency International, Mongolia moved up from 120th place in previous rankings to 94th place. These were two major headlines of the day.