Friday, February 14, 2020

A positive consequence of Brexit

Brexit is likely to be a disaster for the UK (how sad, never mind). But now that they're out of the EU, the latter has finaly taken the opportunity to blacklist one of their key tax havens:
The Cayman Islands, a British overseas territory, is to be put on an EU blacklist of tax havens, less than two weeks after the UK’s withdrawal from the bloc.

In a clear indication of the country’s loss of influence on the EU’s decision-making, the bloc’s 27 finance ministers are expected to sign off on the decision next week.

[...]

On Wednesday, EU ambassadors judged that the islands in the western Caribbean Sea are not effectively cooperating with Brussels on financial transparency, the Financial Times reported.

The Cayman Islands will join Fiji, Oman, Samoa, Trinidad and Tobago, Vanuatu and the three US territories of American Samoa, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands, on the “non-cooperative” list.


Previously they'd been kept off the blacklist - and their money laundering enabled - by UK lobbying. But now they can finally be financially isolated and forced to adopt a proper regulatory regime which doesn't enable theft by billionaires and other criminals. And hopefully the EU will adopt the same tactics towards the rest of the UK's network of money laundries.