Nov/093
London, Delaware Top List Of Secretive Tax Havens
Both London city and the US state of Delaware scored highly in an objective ranking of secrecy jurisdictions, confirming what many had expected - the war against tax havens is a farce.
The US State of Delaware Is Home To Many A Tax Free Company
Despite calls for greater “opacity” from smaller countries, it was confirmed that the US state of Delaware is the most secretive tax haven in the world, an extremely embarassing blow for Obama´s anti-tax haven legislation.
US authorities already knew about this of course..so why haven´t they got round to doing something about it? Because..if they did that foreign investors would leave the US in droves.
The Financial Secrecy Index (FSI), is a report compiled by the Tax Justice Network, which attempts to objectively rank worldwide jurisdictions for the amount of financial transparency they offer.Two measures, an “opacity” score and a weighting are combined to give the overall Financial Secrecy Index score.
Interestingly, the Tax Justice Network calls for many of thes same things as high-tax countries, namely that tax havens should open up their Secrecy Legislation. But while the US government and OECD only want the “little tax haven countries” to give up their secrecy laws, the TJN wants this to happen wordlwide, irregardless of nationality. Hence, “tax justice”.
How did other countries fare?
Switzerland (3) the Cayman Islands (4) both achieved a respectable rank, while London was revealed at no.5. Surprisingly, traditional “tax havens” like Panama and Nevis were much further down the list, ranking 19th and joint 46th respectively.
Click for full Financial Secrecy Index.
Oct/090
Independent Wealth Manager OR Private Bank Attached To A Global Investment Bank - Which Is Best?
Are you better investing with a smaller independent firm, or one of the global organisations like UBS, Citigroup or J.P.Morgan?
Before the credit crunch, the big financial institutions lured investors with the strength of their investment banking arms. The idea being - if bankers were clever enough to make billions with the investment banking side, they could work the same magic with a private bank account.
But the last couple of years have shown a change in policy after huge write-downs at investment banks, and some like Lehmann Brothers or Bear Sterns going down altogether. When big investment banks like UBS suffered in the sub-prime mortgage crisis their private banking arms took a reputation hit.
The big financial institutions argue that they offer a “one-stop-shop” if you will, and can offer a broader range of financial services which are difficult to replicate in a smaller organisation.The bank can attend to not only the client’s personal needs but also those of his company.
Most of all, big banks market their “in-house” experts and teams of reseachers who can help their private banking clients stay one step ahead.
Smaller private banks and trusts take an opposing view. What they offer is a more open system whereby clients pick and choose from a range of external invesment products. In many cases these very same independent private banks are clients of the large financial services companies.
Sep/090
Chavez Urges Private Banks To Broaden Client Base
Venenzuelan President Hugo Chavez urged private banks to look further afield than the financial sector on state tv this Monday, reports news agency EFE.
Chavez Wants To Change Private Banking Attitudes
Chavez said he hopes for a private banking blueprint that will allow private banks to work together with the Venezuelan government towards developing the country, rather than solely focusing on the financial sector.
”Private banking has to support the country rather than the other way round,” he said adding that a policy aimed solely at the financial markets was what provoked the current financial crisis.
After the economic slowdown (a contraction of 2.4% in the second quarter, after 22 consecutive quarters of growth), increasing inflation, and the difference between official and actual dollar rates, ”financial intermediation is the 4th biggest problem in the country,” he said.
”We have to open up a dialogue with private banks, because financial intermediation is well below where it should be; here we have a constitution, there are laws and therefore we have to make sure they comply with them,” he added.
Chavez further added that private banking was ”one of the sectors which has profited most” during his decade in power and called for the private banks to ‘’share the profits”.
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