Offshore Financial Centers, Accounting Services, and the Global Economy

The new global climate of free enterprise has brought with it a proliferation of offshore financial centers that presumably have important roles to play in the emergent global economy. The air of secrecy that appears to pervade the activities of offshore financial centers may well slant or obscure any real understanding of the functions of such centers. The authors investigate the role of major international accounting firms and their services in the processes of business facilitation in the locations that host these centers. By focusing the investigation upon the role of the accounting firms in offshore financial centers, the authors gain a better grasp of the real or potential impacts of the firms in the global economy and in the jurisdictions that host them. Not only do the authors provide a detailed assessment of what the major accounting firms are actually doing in the centers, but they point out what attributes are needed by jurisdictions hoping to succeed as offshore financial centers. The centers included are Antigua, Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Singapore, and Vanuatu.

The authors describe the legal and institutional environments facing business operations in general and the accounting firms in particular in offshore financial centers. By studying these operations, it should show what they are doing in terms of facilitating the international activities that flow through such centers. It should also add to the understanding of the potential that offshore activities have as vehicles for development in small emerging economies. This study should be of interest to a wide range of business disciplines, as well as governmental agencies in advanced and emerging nations, international agencies such as regional development banks, and accountants and the international financial community.

DAVID L. MCKEE is Professor of Economics in the Graduate School of Management of Kent State University, where he specializes in development economics and economic change. His most recent books, coauthored with Don E. Garner and Yosra AbuAmara McKee, are Accounting Services, the Islamic Middle East and the Global Economy (1999), Accounting Services and Growth in Small Economies (1998), and Accounting Services, Growth and Change in the Pacific Basin (1996) also coauthored by Yosra AbuAmara McKee, all published by Quorum Books.

DON E. GARNER is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Accounting at California State University, Stanislaus. He is a certified public accountant and a certified internal auditor as well as a specialist in auditing and accounting.

YOSRA ABUAMARA MCKEE is an adjunct faculty member in Economics at Kent State University. Her work on international trade and services, economic integration and regional development has been aired in various professional publications and presentations.