Introduction

Jurisdictions that provide financial services can be broadly categorised as being ‘Onshore’ or ‘Offshore’. These two financial environments co-exist within the global economic environment. This chapter starts with a brief explanation of the origin of the ‘Offshore’ environment and then proceeds to identify jurisdictions that might be described as ‘Offshore Finance Centres’. The growth of the sector is described in terms of available statistics.

Geographical dispersion

There are many ways in which the geographical dispersion of the ‘Offshore’ environment can be analysed. Here are two examples. First, Johns believes that ‘Offshore Centres’ fall within the following four regions:

• the Caribbean Basin (e.g. Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, the Netherlands Antilles and Panama);

• Europe (e.g. Switzerland and Luxembourg);

• the Middle East (e.g. Bahrain and the UAE); and

• the Far East (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore and Vanuatu).

Elsewhere, five regions have been identified as follows:

• Africa (e.g. Mauritius, Seychelles);

• Asia and the Pacific (e.g. the Cook Islands, Labuan, Nauru, Niue, Samoa etc.);

• the Caribbean (e.g. Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, the Cayman Islands etc.);

• Europe (e.g. Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Jersey etc.); and

• the Middle East (e.g. Bahrain, Dubai, the Lebanon).

Whether either of these categorisations is precise, or even whether any other is more precise, is not the most significant point.