Mapping Financial Secrecy

See social security contributions. Often called NIC.

A human being! Compare with a legal person, such as a limited company or corporation.

Non-bank Financial Institutions: A non-bank financial institution is a financial institution that does not have a full banking license or is not supervised by a national or international banking regulatory agency. They might range from equity and debt financing institutions to insurance, pension, leasing, asset management, consumer finance and non-bank mortgage institutions.

The ratio of the output of the financial services sector of a jurisdiction to its total GDP. The higher the ratio the more dependent upon financial services the jurisdiction is. In some secrecy jurisdictions, such as Jersey, this ratio is as high as 50%. That is exceptional.

See nominee directors: the situation of a nominee company secretary is similar.

Nomine directors act as the legal managers of limited companies and other legal persons. When doing so they act on behalf of the real managers of these entities, who will in many cases be the beneficial owners of them. It is common place for nominee directors to pre-sign letters of resignation from the companies for which they supposedly act which the beneficial owner may use to effect that change at any time of their choosing. The nominee is usually paid a fee for their services but otherwise has no interest in the transactions that relate to the company which they publicly or legally profess to manage, apart from appending their signature to legal documentation including board minutes when requested to do so. Nominee directors are commonly used in secrecy jurisdictions when directorships have to be recorded on public registers and the beneficial owners wish to disguise their identity. Nominee directors are not trustees as they have no discretion available to them with regard to the exercise of their duties: they are mere agents of the beneficial owners.

A nominee owner of an asset is a person who allows their name to be used for the purposes of recording legal ownership of the asset in question but who at the same time enters into an agreement with the beneficial owner of the asset to confirm that they will always act with regard to the instructions of that beneficial owner with regard to the exercise of the rights derived from their legal ownership of that asset and will at any time surrender that ownership to another person upon direction of the beneficial owner. It is common place for nominee owners to pre-sign documentation authorising the transfer of legal ownership of the asset which the beneficial owner may use to effect that change at any time of their choosing. The nominee is usually paid a fee for their services but otherwise has no interest in the transactions that relate to assets which they publicly or legally profess to own. Nominee owners are commonly used in secrecy jurisdictions when ownership of an asset has to be recorded on public registers and the beneficial ownerships wish to disguise their identity. Nominee owners are not trustees as they have no discretion available to them with regard to the exercise of their duties: they are mere agents of the beneficial owners.

See UCITS

The part of the secrecy space where by design or chance the combination of unregulated entities used results in transactions being either legally unregulated, or being very lightly regulated.