Irrelevant
Meanwhile Nigel Green, founder and chief executive of deVere Group, said much of the documentation was irrelevant in today’s offshore environment.
“The overwhelming majority of the offshore sector only provides services that are fully compliant and legal and they are used by law-abiding clients, who are simply looking for typically better returns, more investment options and greater flexibility,” he said.
“Many of the documents that have been revealed by the Panama Papers case date back decades and for the last several years a new and totally unprecedented era of transparency and disclosure has been ushered in.”
Outdated tax havens
Believing the idea of ‘tax havens’ to be outdated, Green’s views have been echoed by Andrew Haslip, head of content in Asia Pacific for private wealth management at Verdict Financial.
He said Verdict’s most recent Global Wealth Manager survey ranked client anonymity as far less a priority for clients than returns or breadth of investment options.
He said: “The data leak from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca has made headlines around the world. But it will have little direct impact on the amount of wealth offshored as high-net-worth (HNW) clients no longer book assets abroad to shelter wealth from tax or prying eyes.”
He added: “As long as HNW clients remain focused on the search for yield and superior investments, they will be attracted to the more freewheeling offshore sector.
“Offshore financial centres such as Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, and the US – and even perennial whipping boy Switzerland – that can offer the sophisticated investments prohibited in more tightly regulated onshore retail investment markets will continue to see strong inflows.”
Campaign against privacy
Ramon Fonseca, director of Mossack Fonseca told The Times of Malta he believed an “international campaign against privacy” was taking place.
Mossack Fonseca is also reported as telling The Guardian: “It appears that you have had unauthorised access to proprietary documents and information taken from our company and have presented and interpreted them out of context.”
