Financial secrecy index.
Financial secrecy index
The Tax Justice Networks (TJN), a non-governmental organisation that focuses on promoting transparency in international finance, publishes the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) every two years to reveal countries around the globe that offer safe heavens for companies and individuals looking to lower their taxes.
The ranking of countries is based on the secrecy score and a weighting that contribute to the overall financial-secrecy framework. 15 parameters that TJN use include banking secrecy; trust and foundations register, recorded company ownership, public company ownership, public company accounts etc.
The most recent FSI was published on 7 November 2013 and gathers data from 82 jurisdictions around the world. According to the index the leading country once again as in 2011 is Switzerland, followed by Luxembourg and Hong Kong (see the list below). The index has also revealed the important role the United Kingdom plays in the international financial secrecy framework by supporting numerous offshore jurisdictions such as Cayman, Gibraltar and Bermuda.
Furthermore, the index has also revealed that countries that provide financial secrecy are in most cases large, developed countries, which goes in the contrary to the stereotype of a typical offshore jurisdiction. Overall, even though there have been changes from the 2011 ranking, the infrastructure of global financial secrecy still remains very high.
- Switzerland
- Luxembourg,
- Hong Kong,
- Cayman Islands,
- Singapore,
- USA,
- Lebanon,
- Germany,
- Jersey,
- Japan,
- Panama,
- Malaysia (Labuan),
- Bahrain,
- Bermuda,
- Guernsey
