Offshore banks must adapt or die in WikiLeaks era

(Arabian Business): With former Julius Baer Group Ltd banker handing over the names of hundreds of high-profile clients with offshore bank accounts to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, the old model of secrecy and confidentiality is dead. In an age of hyper-transparency, when everything is revealed about everyone, it is useless to think they can keep their client affairs quiet. Instead, the offshore banks must adapt or die. Instead of being secrecy hubs, they should be low-tax ones. That is the only way they can survive. These are nervous times for the smartly suited private bankers of Geneva, Liechtenstein and Grand Cayman.

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