No Such List of Offshore Banks Exists – There is no recognized list of the top offshore banks. What is the criteria one would use for such a list is a good question? Examples of rating criteria would be age, total assets, strength of loan portfolio, management, track record, currency, country of location and licensure, etc.
Country Specific Issues – In different offshore countries requirements for opening a bank vary. In some countries anyone can own a bank like in Anjouan. Owning a bank like this does not mean you are going to be able to conduct international banking activities because the other banks around the world would probably refuse to deal with you. Getting correspondent banks in other countries would be about impossible. You would not be able to operate in the country that issued the license since it would be an offshore only banking license restricting you to banking activities outside of the country. In a word a waste of time and money.
Different countries have different reserve requirements as well. If a country had awful reserve banking requirements the banks could loan out much more than they have on deposit thus creating a large portfolio, which would be misleading. Panama has very tight reserve requirements and the banks tend to adhere to them vigorously in Panama with most banks exceeding the reserve requirements year after year. Thus we have a lack of bank failures in Panama.
If the country has a central bank that creates a watered down money supply this also lends to an over inflated loan portfolio. The method of bank accounting also comes into play. There is no such list or even competing lists so learn to question the source of where mention of such a list came from.
Origin of the List Rumor – This came from the Nigerian scammers. They tell the people who are to receive their multi-million dollar inheritance to get an account in a top ten bank. Nonsense since such a list is lacking.
How to Select a secure Offshore Bank – One good way is to pick a country that has tight controls on the banks and a lack of bank failures, of course bank secrecy must be present along with a lack of tax treaties since tax treaties defeat bank secrecy on a wholesale basis.
A second approach is to only use a bank with a full banking license, not just an offshore banking license. Offshore licenses do not allow the bank to conduct business relationship with any entity corporate or personal in that jurisdiction. It can only do banking with foreign entities. This means the country really isn’t watching such a bank very carefully since their own citizens cannot be hurt by such a bank failing.
You can use a bank with the same name used in many banks around the world. The banks in Panama are a separate Panama Banking corporation that just obtains permission to use the same name since it has some affiliation with the chain of banks using the name. The Panama Bank Secrecy still applies and if the executives of the Panama Bank allowed the other banks with the same name around the world to get into the computers and see the Panama accounts they could be fined, go to jail, you could sue them personally and you could sue the bank and the bank has deep pockets and the bank could have problems with their license. The security is that if one of these banks using the same name got into trouble financially in one country the other banks using the same name would jump in and shore it up to protect the name and image around the world. This is the real security since banks outside of the USA and Canada do not offer insurance.
We have such banks in Panama and we open accounts for people there daily. The banks offer English speakers, online banking including the ability to send international wire transfers online, secured Visa cards good online, in-person and in ATM machines around the world, checking or saving accounts, tax free interest, accounts in Euros or US Dollars.
Inquire for further assistance. www.panamalaw.org
Source: Top 10 Offshore Banks
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