Africa’s Bane: Tax Havens, Capital Flight and the Corruption Interface Christensen, John Banking secrecy Tax havens Capital flight Corruption Illicit wealth Tax evasion Transparency Corruption is widely recognised as harmful to sustainable development. Less well recognised, however, is that secrecy jurisdictions (also known as tax havens) and the bankers, lawyers and accountants who operate from these jurisdictions, actively encourage and support corrupt practices by facilitating illicit financial flows through an ‘offshore interface’ between the illicit and licit economies. Financial market liberalisation has contributed to this problem by not addressing the ‘secrecy space’ comprised by banking secrecy, non-disclosure of ownership of corporations and other legal entities, lack of accounting transparency for multinational companies, and the lack of provisions for effective exchange of information between national authorities. Spain Real Institute Elcano. 2009. 2009. Text 24p http://iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/africa’s_bane_tax_havens_capital_flight_and_the.pdf