‘It’s going to be a pretty torrid week for the offshore finance centres’.
That’s the view of Chief Minister Allan Bell as a fresh round of Panana Papers was released and UK Prime Minister David Cameron prepared to host an international anti-corruption conference.
Mr Bell is the only chief minister from the Crown Dependencies and British Overseas Territories to have been invited as a delegate to that conference.
He believes that reflects on the island’s early commitment to signing up to an initiative on automatic exchange of beneficial ownership information being spearheaded by the five largest economies in the European Union - the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
Mr Bell said he believed the release of a second round of Panana Papers proved there had been a co-ordinated approach worldwide building up to Thursday’s conference.
He said: ‘It’s going to be a pretty torrid week, probably less so for the Isle of Man than some of the smaller jurisdictions.’