THE man tasked with the independent review into British offshore financial centres has again suggested any recommendations to come out of it should not disadvantage UK territories against their competitors.
Speaking in the June issue of Securities & Investment Institute’s Review magazine, Michael Foot said any proposals, while they should include the G20 position on issues such as the voluntary code for tax avoidance, must avoid what he calls the law of unintended consequences: action that would reduce the competitiveness of places such as Guernsey, Jersey and the Island of Man, while doing nothing about raising the standards in other world-leading offshore jurisdictions such as Singapore or Switzerland.
Mr Foot was in Guernsey in April to meet local political and financial figures, including Chief Minister Lyndon Trott and Treasury and Resources minister Charles Parkinson, as well as civil servants and key figures from the Guernsey Financial Services Commission.
At that time he said: ‘There is a huge amount of ignorance about what business is done in these jurisdictions and we want to demystify that as much as possible.’
He also backed Guernsey’s appearance on the OECD white list as a good sign, as it was one of only three out of the nine jurisdictions he will be reviewing to be placed on it.
In his most recent article for the SII, he said the responsibility of the UK towards its territories and Crown Dependencies could not be underestimated, as it was the taxpayer who has to pay the bill for offshore financial centres’ chequered fortunes.
‘These are all risks borne by the UK ultimately,’ he said.
‘When the volcano went off in Montserrat in 1995, it was the UK Government that paid the £250m. clean-up bill.’
The Foot Review covers Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and Turks and Caicos Islands.