Cleaning up the murky waters of offshore banking

Global Finance, Nov 1999

The US government is making its boldest move yet to combat international money laundering via offshore bank secrecy havens. Officials who once insisted “capital should flow to wherever the market says to flow” now want to make it more costly for American banks to lend to entities in “bad jurisdictions.”

The American crackdown depends on the passing of new law that require banks to set aside reserves for the loans they have made to high-risk jurisdictions. The strategy, announced in September, is undergoing a 90-day US interagency review. It targets offshore centers that hide the beneficial owners of companies and bank accountants and refuse to cooperate with international law enforcers on the trail of illicit funds.