Policy makers are failing to live up to the pledges of the world’s most powerful nations to tackle tax haven secrecy, according to the latest findings of an index that analyses the contribution different jurisdictions make to this global threat.
Despite a G20 commitment two years ago to curtail the activities of tax havens, the Financial Secrecy Index shows that the level of secrecy in international financial services is intensifying.
Switzerland, with the ink barely dry on a controversial tax deal with the UK which was condemned by Christian Aid as ‘collusion with criminality’, now heads the list as the world’s most harmful purveyor of financial secrecy.
Other jurisdictions in the top ten (in descending order) are Hong Kong, USA Singapore, Jersey, Japan, Germany and Bahrain. Full story
