For supervisors and regulatory professionals, sweeping criticisms of offshore centres do not help. In today's financial world, offshore centres do play a pivotal role. Thus regulators, central bankers and professional advisers need authoritative factual information about how they do business and, crucially, how they are regulated. The contributors to Financial Regulation in Offshore Centres - most of them leading regulators themselves - are best placed to deliver this.

Over recent years offshore centres, and the way in which they supervise financial institutions, have come under intense scrutiny. In response, many offshore centres have moved quickly to update their safeguards and adopt international standards in areas like money laundering and banking supervision. Financial Regulation in Offshore Centres offers an authoritative guide to the legal and regulatory environment of leading offshore centres, and examines the current initiatives concerning them.

The 16 leading OFC supervisors who have contributed, provide up-to-date detailed briefings on the key features of their own jurisdictions, covering; major business lines; the legal and fiscal framework, and how they approach their job as supervisors.

Similarly, the institutional critics of offshore finance explain their approach. In addition, detailed appendicies describe the leading offshore centres and the authorities responsible for them - profiling over 60 agencies in 33 jurisdictions.

Contributions
Financial Regulation in Offshore Centres replaces myth and rumour with fact and analysis. Contributors to the volume include:

• Julian Francis, Governor, Central Bank of the Bahamas
• Dr Marion Williams, Governor, Central Bank of Barbados
• Robert A. Mathavious, Director of Financial Services, Government of the British Virgin Islands
• David Carse, Deputy Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority
• Anselmo Teng, Chairman, Monetary Authority of Macau
• Rafael B. Buenaventura, Governor, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas
• William Witherell, Director, Financial Fiscal and Enterprise Affairs, Organisation Economic Cooperation and Development
• José Roldán, former President, Financial Action Task Force on money laundering.

• Money laundering. Accused of handling dirty money, many offshore centres have revolutionised their anti-money-laundering systems. Financial Regulation in Offshore Centres tracks the changes.
• Emoney and virtual finance: Offshore centres' experience in serving non-residents puts them at the forefront of virtual finance. This edition explores the real-world dilemmas which this creates.
• Trust and company law. Increasingly, funds are intermediated not though banks but through trusts and corporate vehicles. The authors explain how local trust and company law has developed and investigate evolving best practice in this area.
• Tax regimes: offshore centres are most sensitive to criticisms of their right to control their own tax regimes. The authors describe local tax systems in place and the controversy over the efforts of international authorities to bring them to check.
• Future of OFCs: As well as describing current frameworks, each author discusses future plans and how they expect the OFC sector to evolve.

Clear up-to-date information
As well as contributions from regulators and experts this new volume also provides the key factual background which regulatory professionals need to understand OFCs.

• Regulatory agency profiles: Regulatory agencies in OFCs are evolving fast. We profile 60 agencies from 33 jurisdictions, including full contact information for key staff.
• Key facts on OFCS: gives background on the legal and political system; number of licensed banks; population; and key economic indicators
• Influential reports on OFCs: Institutions like the Financial Action Task Force on money laundering and the Financial Stability Forum are driving the agenda on OFCs. This edition reproduces their influential reports and analysis.

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