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The Cayman Islands: legit financial centre or secrecy jurisdiction?
With the publication this month (February 2020) by Tax Justice Network of their 2020 financial secrecy index, MATTHEW FEARGRIEVE considers the role of offshore financial centres (OFCs) 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”. The index establishes the top ten “suppliers of financial secrecy” as being:
1 Cayman Islands
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 football, 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 of offshore jurisdictions being promised in many quarters.
