According to Bloomberg News, there is no better nation helpful than the United States for those planning to conceal their wealth. According to research carried out by the Tax Justice Network, which has ranked countries in terms of their legal and financial systems that have helped them hide ownership of assets.
As per the measure, the United States has escalated its financial supply secrecy to the world by about a third since 2020, thereby earning the worst rating since the beginning of rankings in 2009.
According to Ian Gary, the executive director of the US-based Financial Accountability & Corporate Transparency Coalition, the rankings indicate how corrupt actors are weaponizing against democracy in the financial system. Ian also revealed that the United States must support the greater reciprocal automatic exchange of information.
Worst offenders
The Tax Justice Network implies the worsening score of the United States was being driven by the refusal to exchange information with other nations’ tax authorities. If the United States altered its approach to the one used by the other major economies, it would cut its supply of financial secrecy across the globe by as much as 40%, the report revealed.
President Joe Biden has prioritized transparency reforms as a vital pillar of the foreign policy, pledging to tame tax evasion and money laundering. In December, Janet Yellen, the Treasury Secretary, stated that the United States might be the ideal place to conceal and launder the ill-gotten profits, highlighting the need for efforts related to anti-corruption.
According to Bloomberg News, five of the G-7 nations, the US, UK, Italy, and Germany, are responsible for slashing global progress against financial secrecy by greater than half, as per the Tax Justice Network. Germany, which is slated to host the G-7 meeting on May 18 between finance ministers, has the 7th worse secrecy score globally due to new transparency laws that are poorly implemented, the report said.
An estimated $10 trillion of wealth is present offshore, as per the network. This amount is 2.5 times the dollar value and euro bills circulating the world.
Bloomberg News reports that Switzerland, which occupies second place in rankings, supplies only half of the United States as much as financial secrecy, as revealed by the index. The Cayman Islands, which earlier held the top place on the index, slid to the 14th after data disclosure that manifested the scale of the financial services it provides to the non-residents was much less than anticipated.
The Financial Secrecy Index grades every nation’s financial and legal system with a secrecy score out of 100. A score of 0 implies full transparency, whereas a score of 100 is complete secrecy. The secrecy score combined with the volume of financial services the country offers to the non-residents to determine the extent of financial confidentiality is extended to the world by the nation.
