The International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) is pressurising offshore financial centres to help regulators more readily when they are investigating wrongdoing by individuals and companies.
IOSCO is promising a “dialogue” with offshore financial centres will start this month after expressing concern that certain countries are thwarting their ambition to regulate everything that happens in the financial markets, according to a report in the UK’s Financial Times newspaper.
Roel Campos, joint chairman of a special IOSCO taskforce, warned that some offshore centres could be ostracised if they refused co-operation. “IOSCO members believe we need to work with the tax havens and show them the error of their ways, or essentially seek to ostracise them,” he told the FT.
However, Campos declined to identify offshore financial centres which he felt were failing to cooperate with investigations of wrongdoing.
Senior figures within the Cayman Islands financial services industry say they are confident that the jurisdiction will not prove a target for IOSCO.