Financial Transparency Coalition

United States #1 in Ranking of World’s Most

Secretive Financial Jurisdictions

WASHINGTON, DC — According to a new analysis of financial jurisdictions prepared by UK-based civil society group Tax Justice Network, the state of Delaware is the most secretive financial jurisdiction in the world. Based on the laws and practices of 60 financial jurisdictions the Financial Secrecy Index (FSI) ranks jurisdictions according to their level of secrecy and the extent to which they cooperate with tax authorities in other countries.

The top five most secretive jurisdictions behind Delaware are: (2) Luxembourg; (3) Switzerland; (4) Cayman Islands; (5) United Kingdom (London). The full rankings are available at www.financialsecrecyindex.com.

Global Financial Integrity has compiled the following statistics on U.S. banking secrecy and related financial indices:

• According to the Delaware Secretary of State’s office their operating budget was $12 million in 2007 and they made $24 million in the fees for expedited incorporation filings alone.
• There are currently some 695,000 active entities registered in Delaware, including 50 percent of the corporations publically traded on the U.S. stock exchange.
• New business formations in Delaware are currently running at about 130,000 per annum.
• The growth of private individual deposits by non-residents was most robust in the United States outranking other popular financial jurisdictions such as the Cayman Islands, United Kingdom, and Luxembourg with total non-resident deposits equalling $2.6 trillion in 2007.

The Task Force on Financial Integrity and Economic Development will hold a press briefing Monday, November 2nd, at the National Press Club at 9am to discuss the Index and implications of U.S. policy initiatives including the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act and Incorporation Transparency and Law Enforcement Act.

To R.S.V.P. contact Monique Danziger at mdanziger@gfip.org or 202-293-0740.

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