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Treasure Island Revisited. Jersey’s Offshore Finance Centre Crisis: implications for other Small Island Economies.

Hampton, Mark P., Christensen, John (1999) Treasure Island Revisited. Jersey’s Offshore Finance Centre Crisis: implications for other Small Island Economies. Environment and Planning A, 31 (9). pp. 1619-1637. ISSN 0308-518X. (doi:10.1068/a311619) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:23050)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://www.envplan.com/abstract.cgi?id=a311619

Abstract

Jersey appears to be a successful offshore finance centre (OFC) with high levels of gross

domestic product per capita. The OFC is the largest contributor to Jersey's tax revenue, and accounts

for about 20% of local employment. Jersey has become a major OFC in a global industry and is a

conduit for sizeable capital flows. However, an unparalleled crisis in 1996 generated international

media interest. The crisis involved three separate but related issues: a US $26 million fraud; the fasttracking

of Limited Liability Partnership legislation through the island's parliament; and a political

crisis resulting in the unprecedented expulsion of an outspoken Senator from the parliament. The

anatomy of this crisis reveals several causes of concern for other OFC hosts, especially regulatory

failure and the overlap of interests between the local political elite and those of international financial

capital. We examine the changing international perceptions of 'offshore', question the need for bank

secrecy, and consider Jersey's role as legitimiser for other OFCs. In addition, we discuss lessons for

other OFC hosts, including the need for efficient regulation, the impacts of OFCs in small economies;

and demonstrate that the costs of hosting an OFC are now significantly higher than was first realised.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1068/a311619
Subjects: J Political Science
J Political Science > JC Political theory
H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Leadership and Management
Depositing User: Mark Hampton
Date Deposited: 05 Nov 2009 11:49 UTC
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 10:02 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/23050 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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