City of London Opacity
The spider at the center of the offshore web
The City of London anchors a network of Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories that together dominate global financial secrecy. London provides the legal and professional services while the satellites provide the opacity.
Damage
City and Overseas Territory secrecy architecture shelters elite capital from source-state taxation.
Value lost
Global-scale tax and secrecy rents routed through UK-linked jurisdictions
Record Points
- The British Virgin Islands, Cayman, Jersey, and Guernsey top global secrecy and tax-haven rankings.
- These jurisdictions are constitutionally tied to the UK, which controls their foreign affairs and defence.
- London law firms, accountants, and banks structure the vehicles that route wealth through the satellites.
- The City holds a unique corporate vote and its own remembrancer lobbying inside Parliament.
- Successive governments have resisted forcing public beneficial ownership registers on the territories.