Tighter Regulation Of Offshore Finance Needed - Lord Wallace

12.54.57pm GMT Tue 20th Jan 2004

Liberal Democrat Peer, Lord William Wallace of Saltaire, will today call on the Government to tighten British regulation of offshore financial centres under British sovereignty, in light of the recent Enron and Parmalat scandals.

In a question in the House of Lords, Lord Wallace will say: "690 of the 800 offshore subsidiaries established by Enron and the largest contested account in the collapse of Parmalat were based in the Cayman Islands, a British dependency."

"A recent report from the Public Accounts Committee concludes that the use of credit card accounts in the Channel Islands provides an easy method of evading UK tax."

"The financial world cannot afford another multi-national scandal. It's high time British regulation of offshore financial centres was tightened."