New Zealand has edged out Singapore to take top spot for ease of doing business in the World Bank’s latest rankings, but money-laundering experts warned the honor masked the darker side of the Pacific nation’s vulnerability as a channel for illegal funds.
In its annual Doing Business report released on Tuesday, the World Bank cited tax improvements as a key reason for moving New Zealand to top spot from its previous runner-up position.
The nation also topped the World Bank’s indicator on ease of company formation, a particularly worrisome aspect for anti-money laundering efforts and one that has raised some alarm bells given the use of shell companies to launder funds.
Companies registered in New Zealand were among a network of opaque firms that were used to dupe Chinese investors out of millions of US dollars in a pyramid scheme called “EuroFX” earlier this year.
New Zealand also came under fire this year when the Panama Papers showed the nation’s shell companies and trusts were touted as a secretive way to channel funds around the world, including for tax-avoidance purposes.
“You want a jurisdiction that has a clean reputation, but doesn’t ask many questions when you’re setting up a company there,” said Jason Sharman, an Australia-based money laundering expert and coauthor of the book Global Shell Games.
New Zealand Minister for Economic Development Steven Joyce said the government is aware of the risks and is taking steps, such as bringing anti-money laundering regulations in line with international standards.
The New Zealand Ministry of Justice is also “looking into” the feasibility of a registry that shows the beneficial owners behind companies.
“It’s all about the management of risks and we’ve taken a number of steps,” Joyce said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Others said the risks are not being managed well enough.
“Anyone who wants to … hide dirty money, just needs a local director, a physical address and NZ$45, and in a few minutes they’ve got just what they need to do it with,” said Ron Pol, the Wellington-based head of anti-money laundering firm AML Assurance.
The World Bank report tracks regulatory changes in 190 nations for businesses throughout their life cycle — from the ease of business start-up regulations and getting credit to property rights.
It said a record 137 economies undertook reforms to make it easier to start and operate businesses in the past year, with more than 75 percent of the changes occurring in developing nations.
The World Bank says better performance in the Doing Business rankings generally equates to lower levels of income inequality and reduced poverty.
RETAIL BANKING EXIT: Clients are concerned whether their rights would be protected, while employees were caught by surprise as the bank had just upgraded its services Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗台灣) yesterday said that credit card clients could continue using their cards as operations would continue normally until it sells its consumer banking business. As of February, the bank had 2.86 million credit cards in circulation in Taiwan, of which 2.17 million had been used in the past six months, ranking it sixth among all banks, data from the Financial Supervisory Commission showed. Credit card spending by Citibank clients totaled NT$15.66 billion (US$552.6 million) in February, also ranking sixth among banks in Taiwan. Citibank was the only foreign bank that made it into the top six. Customers should not
FUTURE GROWTH: TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei said customer demand for 3 and 5-nanometer technologies is so strong that it needs to spend on more capacity Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised this year’s capital expenditure to a record US$30 billion, as demand for advanced chips used in high-performance-computing (HPC) applications is stronger than last quarter. The figure surpasses the chipmaker’s allocation in January of US$25 billion to US$28 billion. The investment is part of a three-year US$100 billion capital expansion plan that TSMC unveiled earlier this month. “As we enter a period of higher growth, underpinned by the multiple years of structural mega-trends of 5G-related and HPC applications, we believe a higher level of capital investment is necessary to capture the future growth opportunities,” TSMC
PANDEMIC EFFECT: Chromebook shipments in the first quarter more than tripled from a year earlier, driven primarily by educational institutions in North America Despite a semiconductor shortage, global PC shipments in the first quarter of this year increased 32 percent from a year earlier, preliminary data from research firm Gartner Inc showed. Shipments in the January-to-March period totaled 69.87 million units from 52.93 million units a year earlier, Gartner said in a report on Monday last week. The quarterly increase in shipments marked the fastest annual growth since it began tracking the PC market in 2000, Gartner said. “This growth should be viewed in the context of two unique factors: comparisons against a pandemic-constrained market and the current global semiconductor shortage,” Gartner research director Mikako Kitagawa
UNWINDING BIGGEST DEAL: Five years ago, Dell acquired VMware’s parent, EMC Corp, for US$67 billion, which helped the PC maker to branch out from its origins Dell Technologies Inc on Wednesday said that it would spin off its stake in VMware Inc, creating two publicly traded companies and raising cash to pay down debt. Its shares jumped on the announcement. The spinoff would unwind, at least in part, a consolidation created five years ago in Dell’s US$67 billion acquisition of VMware’s parent, EMC Corp. The spending spree helped Dell branch out from its origins as a PC maker, but left the company saddled with debt. VMware would distribute a special cash dividend of US$11.5 billion to US$12 billion to shareholders at the close of the deal, which is
RSS