Ile-de-France launches fight against tax havens

The Île-de-France, one of France's 26 administrative regions, has launched a new front in the fight against secrecy jurisdictions. Following our blog last week, Le Figaro reports:

"The region will require financial institutions that it works with must provide details to verify that they are not linked to tax havens listed by the State. This is a world first."

This involves a relatively narrow list of secrecy jurisdictions (our Financial Secrecy Index provides a more comprehensive list) - but we nevertheless strongly applaud this move: it is a major step forwards. So far, only Helsinki has considered such a move, though it has not yet acted.

This follows news we reported last year:

"All French banks will begin taking steps in March to close their branches and subsidiaries in countries deemed to be tax havens by the OECD, the deputy head of the French banking federation said on Thursday."

For non-French speakers, a rough Google translation is here.