The World's Biggest Financial and Offshore Centers

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Bank for International Settlements

This table ranks the largest financial and offshore centers by banks' external assets. Majoroffshore centers are in bold.

financeoffshore

(Created by Tobias Schiedermair, May 2006; updated by Leila Farahani, February 2009)

Sources:

  • Data on Financial Assets: Bank for International Settlements (2008)
  • Data on GDP: CIA World Factbook (2008)

    Table notes:
    (1)including international banking facilities (IBFs). IBFs allow depository institutions in the United States to offer services to foreign residents and institutions free of some Federal Reserve requirements and some state and local income taxes.
    (2)including the Japanese offshore market.

    *GDP Estimates for 2004
    **GDP Estimates for 2005

  • The data are based on the residence of the bank and therefore measure the activities
    of all banking offices residing in each reporting country.

     

  • Numbers include banks that report to the Bank for International Settlements. This includes banks residing in Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guernsey, Hong Kong SAR, India, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Korea, Luxembourg, Macao SAR, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, Norway, Panama, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

     

  • Numbers include international transactions between the banks and any of their own affiliates.

    • Additional information:

  • Detailed information on breaks in series in the locational banking statistics are available on the BIS website under http://www.bis.org/publ/qtrpdf/r_qa0812.pdf#page=36.

     

     

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