17th IACC

The Panama Papers are a symbol for the world of ‘offshoreism’.

What is wrong with offshores? Why are they a risk for the world at large? While there
may be legitimate reasons for the use of well-regulated offshore financial centers, the

Panama Papers and other leaks show that those are frequently abused by:
 Criminals hiding their bounty;
 Private people evading taxes;
 Companies ‘optimizing’ taxes instead of paying them where the values are generated
(and where the social costs arise, e.g. in relation to labor conditions and
environmental damage).

What are the effects of intransparency? Intransparency increases the negative impacts of
globalization – especially for the people in developing states – as there are no public
funds for infrastructure, education, healthcare, water etc. at the location of production
and extraction.

Especially developed countries have far too long tolerated and facilitated offshore financial
centers – they need to accept their responsibility.

What are the issues to be discussed:
(1) Phase out offshore financial centers by introducing stringent rules on the identification of
beneficial owners of companies and bank accounts, and ultimately publicly accessible
and verifiable registers for companies.
(2) Implement the global standard that lawyers acting as financial intermediaries, fiduciaries
and company incorporators outside the traditional field of legal work do not dispose of legal
privilege.
(3) Panama would be in a good position to lead the way.