The Myths, Half-Truths and
Whole Truths About Offshore Banking

The idea of someone having funds in an offshore bank account usually conjures images of drug kingpins, mafia dons or shady corporate embezzlers. This image has only been strengthened by movies, television, novels and highly exaggerated tabloid news stories.

Are there illegal assets in offshore bank accounts? Yes. But with significant changes to banking transparency laws in the last decade, as well as increased due diligence on the part of offshore banks, the offshore banking community in reality is not filled with underworld intrigue and drama. In today’s global economy, while the number of offshore bank account holders has grown, one could jokingly say that they’ve also become more boring!

However, there is some truth to the notion that offshore bank accounts have something to hide - but what they’re hiding is not nearly as nefarious as one’s imagination would allow. As we have mentioned in other areas of our web site, there are dozens of perfectly legitimate reasons to “hide” one’s assets in an offshore bank account.

However, these individuals as well as the offshore banking community at large rightly see offshore bank accounts as protecting those assets, not hiding them, from an increasingly litigious society, from the scrutiny of Big Brother, or from family members or business partners who have proven to be less than completely trustworthy.

What is also true is that offshore banking has become quite a popular choice for more than a few discerning investors, individuals, companies and global-reaching corporations. Did you know:

  • Nearly a third of the profits from multinational corporations based in the U.S. are held in offshore bank accounts.
  • Switzerland’s banking community holds well over a third of the world’s wealth.
  • Offshore financial centres are not all in exotic locales - the state of Delaware in the U.S., Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and Hong Kong are considered “tax havens” by the banking industry.

The final truth we at OBI would like to impart here is that offshore banking is a 100 percent legitimate form of banking, and there should be absolutely no stigma involved with obtaining an offshore bank account and conducting your financial transactions as such. If you’d like more information about offshore banking, or if you’d like to open an offshore bank account, please don’t hesitate to contact us  today.