Financial Transparency Coalition

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of the Treasury today announced that the United States and Monaco have signed an agreement to allow for the exchange of information on tax matters between the two countries. The agreement was signed by Deputy Secretary Neal Wolin and Minister Franck Biancheri in Washington.

MONACO (AFP)--Monaco's luxury stores will have to run checks on the super-rich and casinos will face tougher inspections under new rules to fight money- laundering in the Riviera principality, officials said Friday.

There is often a symbiotic relationship between small secrecy jurisdictions (or tax havens, if you must) and wealthy élites in larger economies. Germany is surrounded by Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Austria; Portugal has Madeira; the United States has a string of options in the Caribbean; and Britain has cast a whole spider's web around the world, not least in the Channel Islands and the Caribbean. Monaco, of course, is France's special secrecy jurisdiction. A new story from Wealth Bulletin notes the France-Monaco relationship is a bit like the one between, say, Britain and the Cayman Islands.

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Two months ago G20 leaders pledged a crackdown on tax havens in response to the global financial crisis. But how much has changed?