Venezula prohibits offshore transactions

From Venezuela Analysis:

"Sudeban, Venezuela’s independent bank and financial institutions regulator that acts under the Banks and Financial Institutions Law, with the approval of the Central Bank of Venezuela (BCV), passed a resolution last week to prohibit financial operations and transactions with off-shore banks in countries that apply little regulation. That is, in the words of the resolution, “in countries, states, or jurisdictions with low taxes, without supervision or monetary, banking, or financial regulation and with strong bank secrecy protection.”

Venezuela, by virtue of its oil as much as anything else, is not what one might call a "normal" country in economic terms, so we won't herald this as particularly signalling a trend. But it does follow some important moves against tax havens (or secrecy jurisdictions) by Brazil, which we blogged recently, and by something different, but in a similar spirit, by the Ile-de-France.

And we'd also note that when a country takes a determined stand, really big changes can happen. Just look here, for a good example of what leadership can achieve.