BISCOM News

The number of countries agreeing to set up systems demanded by OECD countries to allow information exchange in the case of tax investigations is increasing.

Switzerland - which has for a number of years provided much more assistance in tax cases than its critics like to say - has agreed to become more open. But there are conditions.

When World Money Laundering Report wrote about Land Banking in Volume 8 Number 8, reference was made to a number of practices that land banking companies use to avoid falling into the regulatory sector, and explaining the way in which the UK's FSA had brought the investment schemes within their ambit. Now Malaysia has raided the offices of one of the land banking companies operating in the country.

It's more than a decade since the OECD began its attacks on "unfair tax competition" in concert with the Financial Action Task Force and the supposedly independent Financial Stability Forum. But now, as industrialised countries plan a meeting in London to further batter the so-called-tax havens, the resolve of some countries is weakening - and threatens to pull down many of the benefits of investing outside one's own country.

The Securities and Exchange Commission's case against Allen Stanford is making slow progress: but the FBI's case is seemingly going even more slowly. Yesterday, the FBI was reduced to advertising for anyone claiming to be a victim to come forward. Usually, victims are rushing to be heard, so this is very different.

The rotting corpse that is HBOS is beginning to poison Lloyds. The newly renamed Lloyds Banking Group's shares are plunging, there is talk of a full nationalisation and the chairman of the Financial Services Authority has appeared to suggest that there might have been other ways of saving HBOS instead of the shotgun takeover.

One of Obama's first steps was to freeze pay for senior government servants. Now his Treasury has formed a scheme to limit pay for senior executives in financial institutions that receive state aid. It will be a major shock to many.

A report published yesterday says that almost 90% of Malaysians think that those embroilled in corruption scandals should be barred from public office.

Four former deputy governors of Indonesia's central bank are now on trial on charges of embezzlement and corruption.

The government of Zimbabwe has surrendered to the loss of confidence in the Zimbabwe dollar and announced that the parallel use of foreign currency is now permitted. Nigel Morris-Cotterill explains that this is good news - but there is a significant downside, too.