Global Financial Crime

The scope for financial crime has widened with the expansion and increased integration of financial markets. Money laundering, terrorism financing and tax crime have all changed in both nature and dimension. As new technologies reduce the importance of physical proximity to major onshore financial centres so a new generation of Offshore Financial Centres (OFCs) have emerged. This accessible volume provides a deeper analysis of the economic, institutional and political features of the OFCs, in order to design the optimal international regulatory policy. Using a multidisciplinary approach with an international level of expertise, the book evaluates international policies regarding offshore countries on the basis of a systematic analysis of their characteristics. Contents: Introduction, Donato Masciandaro; Overview: markets, offshore sovereignty and onshore legitimacy, George Peter Gilligan; Law: the War on Terror and crime and the offshore centres: the 'new' perspective?, Barry A.K. Rider; Macroeconomics: the financial flows of Islamic terrorism, Friedrich Schneider; Financial policy: offshore centres and competition in regulation: the laxity problem, Donato Masciandaro and Alessandro Portolano; Public policy: offshore centres and tax competition: the harmful problem, Julian Alworth and Donato Masciandaro; Politics: offshore centres, transparency and integrity: the case of the UK territories, Chizu Nakajima; Conclusions, Donato Masciandaro; Index.