A concerted push towards open-access data is needed to fight dirty money
Trillions of dollars in assets sit in offshore accounts across the world. Much of it is held in opaque shell companies and trusts, safely shielded from public scrutiny. Over the past decade, major data leaks and investigations — from the Panama Papers in 2016 to the FinCEN Files in 2020 — have put a spotlight on how the secret arrangements have abetted tax avoiders, money launderers and terrorist activities. The net has tightened.
In theory, international initiatives, led by the Financial Action Task Force and the OECD, have made progress in setting standards for law enforcement agencies to access company information on request. In practice, gaining international clearance is often challenging and cumbersome. That gives bad actors time to move their assets. Legitimate interest registers, which grant conditional access to investigators, can have similar drawbacks.
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