Offshore banks reform to survive

Offshore bankers are coming under greater scrutiny and pressure to reform. The collapse of Italian dairy products group Parmalat and the EU’s decision to target offshore centres and tighten corporate governance have helped to focus the attention of international authorities on this issue.

“The role and regulatory control of offshore centres needs to be tightened,” EU internal market commissioner Frits Bolkestein told the European Parliament last month. “Scandal upon scandal will cumulatively weaken financial markets like a corrosive drip of a leaking fuel tank,” he added.