It was only a few years ago that offshore tax havens sprang up for the benefit of wealthy individuals. Those were the days when rich Germans would drive through the night to bank their loot, stuffed in the Mercedes’ boot, into numbered bank accounts across the border in Switzerland or Liechtenstein.
But today’s global economy has changed all that. Now there are tidal amounts of money washing through the world’s offshore centres – 69 at the International Monetary Fund’s last count – and with the tide of financial regulation rising at a furious pace the veil of secrecy is lifting.
