For years, the US acted as one of the world’s leading centres for money laundering and offshore finance. Now, that reality is changing fast.
With little fanfare, the US has in the past few weeks announced or implemented new reforms across a range of sectors that traditionally lent themselves to money laundering. All of this is an outgrowth of the Biden administration’s focus on countering corruption.
The most important measure came last month, when the US finally brought its new beneficial ownership registry online. The registry will shine a light on the constellation of anonymous shell companies previously formed in the country. For years, the US enabled the creation of these shells at a far higher clip than competitors, led especially by states such as Delaware and Nevada. To take but one data point, the World Bank found in 2011 that the US formed more anonymous legal entities than 41 tax havens combined — a trajectory that has, by all appearances, only continued since.
