Reuters, 12.07.03, 3:00 PM ET
BASEL, Switzerland, Dec 7 (Reuters) - U.S. banks have firmly established themselves as the biggest users of offshore financial centres after leading a migration of money into the traditional tax havens in recent quarters, the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) said on Sunday.
The BIS said in its quarterly report that deposits in offshore centres reached $1.8 trillion in the second quarter of 2003, more than doubling since 1990.
U.S. banks alone accounted for $601 billion, or one third of all offshore claims, with most of the money going to the Cayman Islands and Jersey, the BIS said.
"These recent moves have further established the U.S. banking sector as the biggest user of offshore centres, a position it has held since the fourth quarter of 2000," the BIS said.
"An increasingly large portion of offshore business is vis-a-vis non-bank counterparties such as hedge funds, insurance companies and securities firms," the BIS said.
The BIS, the central bank to the world's central banks, said the trend to place deposits offshore was increasing. Offshore money now accounted for 12 percent of all claims since the end of 2001, compared with an average of 11 percent of all claims in 2001 and 2000.
Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service
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/ dave /