In Defence of Secrecy

City of Secrets? Geneva, centre of private asset management in Switzerland

Matthew Feargrieve considers the role of the so-called “secrecy” jurisdictions in the sphere of global asset management, and challenges the four basic premises on which attacks on them are based.

The NGO Tax Justice Network (TJN) has published its 2020 Financial Secrecy Index:

View 2020 results

TJN’s index establishes the top ten “suppliers of financial secrecy” as being:

1 Cayman
2 US
3 Switzerland
4 Hong Kong
5 Singapore
6 Luxembourg
7 Japan
8 Netherlands
9 BVI
10 UAE

These jurisdictions, says TJN, promote the secrecy that keeps “tax abuse feasible” and “drug cartels bankable”.

Whilst the naming and shaming of “secrecy jurisdictions” has always been a political footbal, it was the financial crisis of 2008 that saw a sharp escalation in anti-offshore rhetoric, which peaked in the lead-up to the G20 Summit in April 2009, with reform…