Be careful where you put up

Apropos the thread about asset allocation and relocation to hedge political
risk, today's FINANCIAL TIMES reports:

>Offshore banking centres agree to greater scrutiny
>
>                   Tuesday October 8 1996
>
>                   By George Graham, Banking Correspondent
>
>                   Banking supervisors from large offshore financial
centres have agreed to
>                   co-operate more with their counterparts in
industrialised nations in
>                   investigating irregular behaviour at banks under their
control.

<SNIP>


>                   The drafting involved hard negotiations on issues such
as when a
>                   supervisor could ask for the identity of an individual
depositor or investor.
>                   A supervisor in Europe may, for example, want to know
that a bank is not
>                   dependent for all its deposits on one source, but the
offshore centre does
>                   not want that to serve as an excuse for trawling for tax
evaders.
>
>                   In all 140 countries have endorsed the deal, which sets
out procedures for
>                   exchanging information between supervisors and also
establishes a
>                   checklist to ensure that banking operations in a
particular country are
>                   subject to effective supervision.
>
>                   The agreement says home supervisors should be able to
inspect the books
>                   of shell branches wherever they are kept. "In no case
should access to
>                   these books be protected by secrecy requirements in the
country that
>                   licenses the shell branch," it says.


Don Weightman  
dweightman@radix.net