Panama has taken "substantial steps" to tackle tax evasion after last year's leak of millions of documents from offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca revealed the nation's role as a global enabler of illicit financial flows, an international economic body said.
Variances in data-protection rules from country to country are impeding EU investigations of politicos with secret offshore holdings as documented by the Panama Papers, European lawmakers heard Thursday.
EU parliamentarians on Thursday detailed plans to investigate purported supervisory failures that allowed some of Europe's largest banks to create thousands of shell companies for clients holding suspect funds offshore.
The leak of millions of records purporting to show widespread exploitation of offshore financial centers by global leaders, lenders and criminals is expected to draw governmental scrutiny of illicit finance, however unevenly.
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