Where the Money Can Hide: The New Financial Secrecy Index was published today

Today, the second edition of the Financial Secrecy Index was published by the Tax Justice Network, covering 73 secrecy jurisdictions. The Tax Justice Network (TJN) is an international, non-aligned coalition of researchers and activists with a shared concern about the harmful impacts of tax avoidance, tax competition and tax havens. 

http://www.taxjustice.net/

Financial Secrecy Index

2011 Results

RANK	Secrecy Jurisdiction	FSI - Value	Secrecy Score	Global Scale Weight
1	Switzerland	1879.2	78	0.061
2	Cayman Islands	1646.7	77	0.046
3	Luxembourg	1621.2	68	0.131
4	Hong Kong	1370.7	73	0.042
5	USA	1160.1	58	0.208
6	Singapore	1118.0	71	0.031
7	Jersey	750.1	78	0.004
8	Japan	693.6	64	0.018
9	Germany	669.8	57	0.046
10	Bahrain	660.3	78	0.003
11	British Virgin Islands	617.9	81	0.002
12	Bermuda	539.9	85	0.001
13	United Kingdom	516.5	45	0.200
14	Panama	471.5	77	0.001
15	Belgium	467.2	59	0.012
16	Marshall Islands	457.0	90	0.000
17	Austria	453.5	66	0.004
18	United Arab Emirates (Dubai)	439.6	79	0.001
19	Bahamas	431.1	83	0.000
20	Cyprus	406.5	58	0.010
21	Guernsey	402.3	65	0.003
22	Lebanon	397.3	82	0.000
23	Macao	389.8	83	0.000
24	Canada	366.2	56	0.009
25	India	344.0	53	0.013
26	Uruguay	331.0	78	0.000
27	Malaysia (Labuan)	319.3	77	0.000
28	Korea	317.2	54	0.009
29	Liberia	316.9	81	0.000
30	Barbados	266.6	79	0.000
31	Ireland	264.2	44	0.030
32	Mauritius	261.6	74	0.000
33	Philippines	253.9	73	0.000
34	Liechtenstein	239.2	81	0.000
35	Italy	231.2	49	0.008
36	Isle of Man	230.4	65	0.001
37	Israel	230.3	58	0.002
38	Turks & Caicos Islands	218.9	90	0.000
39	Netherlands	199.7	49	0.005
40	Belize	198.4	90	0.000
41	Costa Rica	177.2	77	0.000
42	Guatemala	174.8	81	0.000
43	Gibraltar	174.6	78	0.000
44	Ghana	146.8	79	0.000
45	Andorra	133.6	73	0.000
46	Netherlands Antilles	129.4	83	0.000
47	Aruba	124.9	74	0.000
48	Denmark	121.7	40	0.008
49	Botswana	121.3	79	0.000
50	Portugal (Madeira)	119.4	51	0.001
51	US Virgin Islands	104.2	68	0.000
52	St Vincent & Grenadines	100.9	78	0.000
53	Spain	98.8	34	0.016
54	Malta	98.6	48	0.001
55	Seychelles	95.0	88	0.000
56	Hungary	94.8	47	0.001
57	Latvia	88.9	45	0.001
58	Antigua & Barbuda	88.5	82	0.000
59	St Lucia	78.7	89	0.000
60	Maldives	78.5	92	0.000
61	Grenada	57.6	83	0.000
62	Montserrat	50.1	86	0.000
63	Brunei Darussalam	45.8	84	0.000
64	Monaco	37.7	75	0.000
65	Anguilla	36.0	79	0.000
66	St Kitts & Nevis	31.2	81	0.000
67	San Marino	30.9	79	0.000
68	Samoa	27.5	85	0.000
69	Vanuatu	14.3	88	0.000
70	Cook Islands	13.4	75	0.000
71	Dominica	12.5	80	0.000
NA	Nauru*	0	93	NA
NA	France*	0	NA	0.008

*Temporarily withdrawn pending legal interpretation  

http://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/2011results.html

"Switzerland is the grandfather of the world’s tax havens, one of the world’s biggest financial centres, and one of the world’s biggest secrecy jurisdictions or tax havens. About a third of the world’s cross-border invested private wealth is managed in Switzerland, amounting to around US$ 2 trillion, according to the Swiss Bankers’ Association. Swiss banking is historically based on two main foundations: secrecy, and political stability.

With total banking assets recently estimated at 820 percent of Swiss GDP (compared to ‘just’ 460 percent in the UK), banking looms larger in Switzerland as a share of the economy than in almost any other country. Given this dominance, with UBS and Credit Suisse accounting for about half of all Swiss banking assets, it is hardly surprising that the Swiss state is significantly ‘captured’ by the financial sector. However, although the Swiss state generally defends the interests of Swiss banks and bank secrecy, many Swiss – though probably a minority – oppose it."

from http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/2011/10/financial-secrecy-index-2011-focus-on.html

"The Cayman Islands is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. It operates a considerable degree of political and economic autonomy from the UK but enjoys the UK’s constitutional oversight at the same time – a crucial reassurance for foreign investors who have flocked to Cayman. The Governor, appointed by the UK, presides over the Cayman cabinet and appoints members of the judiciary and the police commissioner. The UK has responsibility for defense, foreign affairs, internal security, the police, the civil service and ‘good governance’.

Cayman markets itself as being an upmarket financial centre, and there is no doubt that a large share of its business comes from some of the world’s biggest banks, corporations, hedge funds and other entities. It has been described as the world’s fifth biggest financial services centre. Hosting over 10,000 mutual funds, almost 300 banks and over 90,000 companies, it is by far the world’s leading domicile for hedge funds, the leading domicile for healthcare captive insurance companies, and it is second only to Luxembourg in mutual fund administration.
With financial services accounting for well over half of gross domestic product, this is, like many offshore jurisdictions, heavily reliant on the financial services industry. There are no direct taxes in Cayman; most government revenue comes from fees and duties such as import duties, work permit fees and financial industry registrations."

http://taxjustice.blogspot.com/2011/10/financial-secrecy-index-2011-focus-on_05.html

Next month will be published  the BPI, (Bribe Payers Index) and the CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) in two months by Transparency International, this will be the first time that all three dimensions of corruption are covered in one year.

http://www.transparency.org/

Now I want to know, who's money is hidden there?