US climbs to No 2 on ‘financial secrecy’ list

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The United States now ranks as the world’s second largest contributor to financial secrecy, enabling money laundering, corruption and tax evasion to an increasing degree, according an index published on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila).

As the “global capital of bank secrecy,” Switzerland remains at the top of the Tax Justice Network’s biennial “Financial Secrecy Index”—but the growing share of opaque financial services offered by the United States means it allows more ill-gotten wealth to be stashed away in secrecy, the network said.