The Rise (and Fall?) of Offshore Finance in the Global Economy: Editors’ Introduction

At present over forty jurisdictions offer a variety of facilities for tax evasion and offshore finance. Surrounding each of the major trading blocs of the world economy are a growing number of jurisdictions often known derogatively as ‘tax havens’. The European Union is serviced by older offshore finance centres (OFCs), including the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, and newer OFCs such as Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus and Dublin’s International Financial Services Centre (IFSC); Japan by Pacific islands including Vanuatu, Western Samoa and the Cook Islands, Labuan and Singapore; and the North American Free Trade Association by the Caribbean and Central American havens including the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and The Bahamas. China has Hong Kong; the Gulf states, Bahrain; India and Southern Africa, the Seychelles and Mauritius. The sheer amount of money that passes through these places is staggering — according to one estimate as much as half of the world’s stock of money either resides in or is flowing through tax havens.