Against the backdrop of mounting international pressure on the Caribbean over the perceived role of offshore banking institutions in facilitating financial crimes, including money laundering, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry Christie used this week’s opening session of the Third Caribbean Conference on the International Financial Services Sector to defend regional offshore banks, asserting that they were far more robust than those in countries that continue to fight offshore financial services in the region.
In a direct criticism of pressures being imposed by Europe and North America over assertions that offshore banks are havens for tax dodgers and ill-gotten finances, Christie was openly critical of those who he said believe that there is “something intrinsically sinister about the accumulation of wealth in offshore jurisdictions.”
Christie told the forum that those who hold that premise seek to “maim and cripple, if not destroy the offshore economies within our region.” And according to Christie the anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism funding and anti-criminal regulatory regimes of many countries in the region “are far more robust and demonstrably far more
