Law Commons^™

Changing The Rules Of The Game: Offshore Financial Centers, Regulatory Competition & Financial Crises, Andrew P. Morriss

Faculty Scholarship

Politicians from New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown are blaming offshore financial centers (OFCs) for contributing to the current global financial crisis by failing to adequately regulate their financial industries. These criticisms are mistaken for three reasons. First, OFCs offer different rather than less regulation. Since most OFC financial products are aimed at sophisticated and institutional investors, OFC regulators are less concerned with protections for retail investors than are regulators in jurisdictions like the United States. This enables them to adopt less costly regulations that are still effective at preventing fraud and other financial …