Shaming International Financial Centres

With the advent of the FATF blacklist and the US FinCen advisories, the problem of perception and reality has been exacerbated. The international financial centres (IFCs) claim that the legislation and infrastructure are in place, and that money laundering, which still takes place largely in the metropolitan centres, is under control in their jurisdictions. The mainland countries perceive that money laundering is taking place in the IFCs. The situation is not unlike the story of two blindfolded men touching an elephant: the first held the tail and thought that it was something dry and sinewy; the second touched the tip of the trunk and thought the creature was something moist and flexible. The truth was somewhere in the middle.