May 18, 2022

[PODCAST] USA – global leader on the 2022 Financial Secrecy Index

Naomi Fowler (Tax Justice Network) May 2022: “We’re hearing a lot from world leaders about sanctions against Russian oligarchs at the moment. We know financial secrecy is what the powerful, the corrupt, and criminals really love. With financial secrecy they can undermine the democratic will of any country’s government. They can drain the tax revenues that stop the rest of us living secure and happy lives. So which nations are the world’s worst offenders when it comes to financial secrecy? I’m going to tell you, because this month the Tax Justice Network’s released the latest results of the Financial Secrecy Index. Our specialist team ranks countries every two years on how secretive their financial and legal systems are. Then, they combine that with how big a financial secrecy global player they are – in other words, how much damage they’re doing in the world.

So, this isn’t a list of the world’s most secretive jurisdictions, as is sometimes misreported. It’s a list of countries ranked according to the level of secrecy services a country offers customers, combined withits size as a global player. I’ll give you an example – the very beautiful Maldives is a highly secretive jurisdiction – but it’s a really small player globally doesn’t have a significant impact on global financial secrecy – so it’s not at the top of the index. So it’s logical isn’t it, that the bigger a financial secrecy supplier a nation is, the more responsibility they have to reduce their secrecy services because they’re doing more damage. So…this is a ranking you don’t want to be at the top of. So, here’s the top ten – our 2022 roll call of shame…

At number 1 is the United States, with the worst rating ever recorded by the Financial Secrecy Index. Followed by Switzerland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Luxembourg, Japan, Germany, UAE, British Virgin Islands, Guernsey.”

it’s no longer time for the US to pretend that it can enact and create a less corrupt global environment and foster democracy without looking internally and cleaning up its own house and catching up with global norms. It’s time to walk the talk.” Ryan Gurule, Fact Coalition

The Financial Secrecy Index 2022 in the Tax Justice Network podcast, the Taxcast