Fiscal havens: new record in outstanding cross-border claims offshore end-2017

fiscal havensFoter.com

The crusade against fiscal havens is not working. According to the BIS, “banks’ outstanding claims on offshore banking centres surpassed their previous peak recorded in 2008 during the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Outstanding cross-border claims on offshore centres totalled $4.6 trillion at end-2017, compared with $4.3 trillion at end-March 2008.”

And yet EU ministers decided to remove eight jurisdictions from its 17-country tax haven blacklist in January, a decision widely disapproved of by officials and activists. Among those delisted was Panama, less than two years after its secretive tax loopholes were exposed by the Panama Papers.

About the Author

Ana Fuentes
Columnist for El País and a contributor to SER (Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión), was the first editor-in-chief of The Corner. Currently based in Madrid, she has been a correspondent in New York, Beijing and Paris for several international media outlets such as Prisa Radio, Radio Netherlands or CNN en español. Ana holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University in Madrid and the Sorbonne University in Paris, and a Master's in Journalism from Spanish newspaper El País.