A tabled EU directive would force lawyers to disclose
incriminating information about their clients' money laundering
activities. Pakistan initiated a "loyalty scheme", awarding
expatriates who prefer official bank channels to the much maligned
(but cheaper and more efficient) Hawala, with extra baggage
allowance and special treatment in airports.
The magnitude of this international collaboration is unprecedented.
But this burst of solidarity may yet fade. China, for instance,
refuses to chime in. As a result, the statement issued by APEC last
week on measures to stem the finances of terrorism was lukewarm at
best. And, protestations of close collaboration to the contrary,
Saudi Arabia has done nothing to combat money laundering "Islamic
charities" (of which it is proud) on its territory.
Still, a universal code is emerging, based on the work of the OECD's
FATF (Financial Action Task Force) since 1989 (its famous "40
recommendations") and on the relevant UN conventions. All countries
are expected by the West, on pain of possible sanctions, to adopt a
uniform legal platform (including reporting on suspicious
transactions and freezing assets) and to apply it to all types of
financial intermediaries, not only to banks. This is likely to
result in ...
The decline of off shore financial centres and tax havens
By far the most important outcome of this new-fangled juridical
homogeneity is the acceleration of the decline of off shore
financial and banking centres and tax havens.
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