How Far Offshore? Monaco as a Financial Centre

Abstract

Offshore financial centres (OFCs) are often characterised as the clearest expressions of global markets, as autonomous entities operating outside the regulatory controls of nation states. Research on the small but expanding OFC of Monaco, however, shows that relationships with major onshore states, namely France, can be quite close, and complex. This article outlines the distinctive onshore influences, what we term ‘onshore patronage’, which underpin the development of OFCs. Using the lens of an emerging bank confidentiality law in Monaco, it is revealed that France has by no means been an innocent by-stander in Monaco's offshore development. Such an approach has wider theoretical implications for the way we conceptualise the political dimensions of global offshore markets, for political structures can be seen to propel as well as constrain such markets.