Statement of Senator Carl Levin on Regulating Offshore Jurisdictions

WASHINGTON – Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) issued the following statement this afternoon on regulating offshore jurisdictions:

“As global leaders meet to strengthen international financial regulation, it is urgent that they address the secretive and largely unregulated world of offshore jurisdictions.

By offering financial services built around secrecy, minimal taxation, and hands-off regulation, the offshore jurisdictions promote tax evasion and undermine transparency, government oversight, and the rule of law. Offshore jurisdictions routinely unleash anonymous corporations, hedge funds, trusts, and other financial entities on the world, and hinder international efforts to detect, stop, and punish misconduct. Inaction by the international community has encouraged an alphabet of countries to engage in offshore abuses, from Austria to the Cayman Islands, the Isle of Man, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Singapore, Switzerland, and more.

It is long overdue for the world community to take a collective stance against the offshore jurisdictions’ secretive, unregulated way of doing business. The nations of the world must adopt mechanisms to bar uncooperative offshore financial institutions from accessing international financial systems. We can fight back, and I hope the United States will take a leadership role in the overdue effort to combat offshore abuses.”