Vexed Bermoothes

The news is starting to seep out of the G20 meetings regarding what will be done to the offshore jurisdictions, who have been a convenient scapegoat for politicians in the past weeks.

Treasury minister Stephen Timms says the G20 have agreed to impose sanctions on tax havens that refuse to sign up to OECD rules to fight money laundering and tax evasion, although discussions are continuing over whether uncooperative havens will be named and shamed.

So, all the sound and fury from politicians leading up to the event seems largely to have been for domestic consumption.  However, it had the effect of sending many of the offshores scrambling to comply with the OECD standards (which, as noted before, Bermuda has been doing since 2002).

It seems that China has been the unlikely champion of the offshores, protecting its business interests in Hong Kong and Macao.

It will be interesting to see if the G20 countries apply those same rules to themselves; we all know that more money is laundered in the US and UK than anywhere else in the world.