They have now been caught by the “standards and codes” that have been set by multilateral agencies, such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) (concerned about money laundering and the financing of terrorism); the OECD (concerned about Harmful Tax Competition); and the Financial Stability Forum (concerned about transparency and information transfer etc.).
Under this onslaught, the attractiveness of these centers has declined and their continued existence now seems in jeopardy. All these, on top of their own home-grown problems, which have ranged from overly expansionary fiscal policies in some cases, to excessive external borrowing in others.