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Showing posts with label offshore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label offshore. Show all posts

April 10, 2013

How to move offshore your cash in six steps

No one know for sure how much of the planet's private wealth is parked in tax havens. One estimate is that there's $32 trillion deposited offshore; a more conservative calculation puts it a minimum of $8 trillion.
It is easy to understand why 2.5 million files covering 120,000 offshore entities was 'accidentally' leaked to the media.
Governments realize that they are running out of options fast and putting pressure on off-shore accounts is the second front of a coordinated effort to start converting private wealth to a public one.


ICIJ issued the following simple six-step process guide to off-shore stashing; from 'Choosing a haven' to creating a 'secret identity' and from opening the 'right' bank account to how to 'move' the money; this picturesque guide may be indispensable to many Europeans now that the EU is adamant on who will pay the next banking crisis.

For a full interactive tour visit:  http://www.icij.org/offshore/interactive-stash-your-cash 


April 6, 2013

Eu Wide Bank Confiscation Approaching

What happened in Cyprus is unfortunately going to be replicated all over Europe, the reason is simple at the end there is not enough money to bailout Spain and Italy, the system used so far in Portugal, Greece and Ireland is not sustainable, let us even suppose for one moment that Germany is willing to help Italy and Spain, it will not work, there is not enough money to sustain those rapidly decomposing economies and even if Germany would mortgage its future it would only kick the can down the road for few more years.
The crisis is systemic and the jump-ship set of mind is already in place all over Europe.
Italy and Spain are doomed, France is on the brink.
Cyprus has been correctly addressed as a guinea pig for future bail (out-in) but at the end all minds go to Italy with its large savings base and Spain with his colossal bank crisis.
This week Italy's largest bank CEO contemplated such a move and alarm bells should start ringing all over Europe:

From Bloomberg: Unicredit says global rule needed

Cutting large deposits in failing banks, along with other liabilities such as bonds, to offset losses is acceptable as long as small savers’ funds remain protected, Ghizzoni told reporters in Vienna late yesterday. The European Union has to introduce identical rules in all of its member states and ideally those rules would be coordinated globally, he said.

Unicredit knows the Cyprus effect is coming to Italy and Spain and it is asking a global coordination to ring fence the EU from massive capital flows.
What is scaring is that we have moved from a world where property and savings were guaranteed to a world where property is no longer safe and where starting from bankers to politicians a framework is being created to justify or legalize such confiscations as necessary.

From Reuters: EU to push for losses on big savers at failed banks.

The European Parliament will demand that big savers take losses if their banks run into trouble, a senior lawmaker told Reuters, adding momentum to a policy unveiled as part of a Cypriot bailout.

Now the likelihood is rising that tough treatment of big depositors will be written into a new EU law, making losses for large savers a permanent feature of future banking crises.

"You need to be able to do the bail-in as well with deposits," said Gunnar Hokmark, an influential member of the European Parliament, who is leading negotiations with EU countries to finalize a law for winding up problem banks.

"Deposits below 100,000 euros are protected ... deposits above 100,000 euros are not protected and shall be treated as part of the capital that can be bailed in," Hokmark told Reuters, adding that he was confident a majority of his peers in the parliament backed this line.

The law, which will also introduce means to impose losses on bondholders, is due to take effect at the start of 2015. Germany wants provisions for bailing in bondholders and others in the same year, though that may be delayed.

Hokmark urged savers to check their banks' health before taking the risk of depositing money.

"If you put your money in Royal Bank of Scotland ... or Deutsche Bank, depending on how that bank is working you are taking a risk," he said. "You need to be aware that you are taking a risk.
Looking ahead, the implication is that no one should place more than €100,000 in any bank (but then since every rule can be twisted according to the moment's necessity who know if 100.000 will still be the threshold in 1 year time).
So no one will invest in Europe especially in questionable Southern European banks.
Instead, expect capital flights to resume in different, more creative forms.
Pressure is going to rise on offshore banks as well to undermine their attractiveness and willingness to accept deposits from EU citizens, proof enough is this week leaks on offshore accounts.
A major campaign has started to coral money inside the EU in anticipation of the Great Confiscation and Great Depression approaching.
My only tip if you have money inside the EU is time to move out before the trap is in place.

November 20, 2011

EU enforcing capital repatriation from Switzerland

No doubt we are witnessing in the Euro zone massive capital flights from PIIGS countries to safer core Euro countries. Greece and Italy are experiencing an exodus of capitals to Switzerland and other stable European countries and offshore locations.
Finally this has caught the attention of the EU and a move is being made in Brussels to “force” the Swiss government/banks to transfer all of the assets of Greek citizens back to the Greek banks. For a Greek this means that your money is hostage. It has been functionally expropriated. It will be transferred into a banking system that is fraught with risk. Some portion of the money that goes back to Greece will certainly be lost. This is setting a dangerous precedent for more masive interventions in capital controls should the situation degenerate in the future.

- BRUSSELS—The European Commission is helping Greece negotiate an agreement with Switzerland to repatriate as much as $81 billion believed to be hidden in Swiss bank accounts, a high level European Union executive body official said Nov. 17.

The European Commission is working with Switzerland and Greece stop what it believes is an ongoing exodus of money from Greek bank accounts into Swiss and other offshore banking centers, the EU official said.
We have a situation developing where the European Union is effectively trying to institute capital controls.
The fear of broader capital controls and more repatriation will spread like wildfire. The fact is, capital flight is a very reasonable response in our current environment. Capital controls that either stop or reverse it will undermine confidence and create a panic the will feed a gigantic exodus of capitals to countries out of reach of the EU grasp.
Officials in Brussels are unleashing hell.