Anonymity Is Gone

The old school traditional bank secrecy in which total anonymity is guaranteed can not be found anymore. Banks in the Bahamas, BVI, and a whole lot of other well known traditional on-shore and off-shore jurisdictions now willingly share information with authorities upon request.

Nowadays banks do not allow accounts to be opened only based on an account number or fictitious names. All account holders have to be identified in several different ways and banks have full due diligence files on all account holders. Neither is it easy to hide behind a company since most banks require a full disclosure of all "ultimate beneficial owners" (UBO's) together with information of their residential addresses in order to open a corporate account.

Confidentiality is Still Open

Thou total anonymity is not an option anymore, confidentiality are! Contrary to anonymity confidentiality is based on the practice that information known by the bank about a client is never revealed except for in very specific cases. Confidentiality is based upon laws, regulations and/or established practices (tradition).

No matter where you decide to bank? You must always be prepared that your bank details might be made released and shared, should the reasons in the request be genuine and of the right kind. Virtually all acceptable jurisdictions are now at a point where they receive inquiries with sufficient amount of evidence. Governments around the world now allocate more and more funds for investigation purposes and this will most certainly result in disclosure of more and more confidential information.

If a government agency is keen enough, has enough evidence and is willing to spend enough money to get the information, then confidentiality is nothing else but an illusion.

Information Exchange

Challenges in regards of bank confidentiality usually come from governmental agencies, and for a number of different reasons. The modern world of today gives them both the power and the tools to surpass even the strongest bank secrecy.

The normal avenues and the bases for exchange of information are as follows:

Globally

• Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAs)
• Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties (MLATs)
• Tax and Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA)
• Suspicious Transactions Reports (STRs)

In the European Union

• Several Mutual Assistance directives
• Savings Tax Directive