“Confidentiality and transparency can co-exist in overseas territories,” Anthony Travers, the former managing partner at Cayman law firm Maple and Calder told an audience at the annual Trans Continental Trust Conference in Geneva last week as he outlined the important role that offshore centres play in global finances.

Mr Travers said ongoing negative attitudes towards the role and importance of offshore centres to the world economy were borne out of a “lack of practical understanding”. The belief that offshore centres were home to unscrupulous financial practices was also false, Mr Travers added as &...