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UK MP Attacks Barclay Offshore Services

On January 17, the rhetorical battle against offshore services went up a notch, when Chuka Umunna, a labor MP since 2010, called on Barclay banks to close or reduce the number of its offshore subsidiaries, including 30 in the Isle of Man, 38 in Jersey and 181 in the Cayman Islands. Umunna suggested that Barclays, through its structured capital markets division, uses its offshore companies to facilitate UK tax avoidance.

The UK code of practice on tax for banks, to which Barclays is signed up, requires banks not to undertake tax planning to achieve tax results contrary to the intentions of parliament. Though ntentions is only loosely defined.
Bob Diamond, Barclay CEO, replied to Umunna noting that t is our obligation when we do financing for clients to do it in the most tax efficient way and that is in line with government policy. He further pointed out that Barclay paid GBP2 billion in UK taxes last year, and 12.5 billion in the past six year.