Offshore financial centres should argue their case more forcefully at every opportunity as they come under attack from larger countries, according to Caymanian international business leader.

Eduardo D'Angelo Silva, chairman of the Cayman Islands Financial Services Association (CIFSA) did just that in Miami this week when he launched a blistering attack on US and UK hyprocrisy over tax transparency rules.

While sitting on a discussion panel with a US official who has led efforts to investigate cross-border tax dodging by US citizens, Mr. Silva claimed that the world's biggest tax havens were US states and the UK.

Mr. Silva told delegates at the OffshoreAlert Financial Due Diligence annual conference that Nevada, Delaware, Wyoming and the UK were "almost criminal" in their willingness to flout international transparency standards.

"In terms of secrecy, money-laundering and tax fraud, the greatest offenders are the US and the UK," Mr. Silva said.

He highlighted a study by Professor Jason Sharman, a political scientist at Australia's Griffith University.

Prof. Sharman set out to find out where he could form shell companies and secret accounts around the world and found it was easier to do so in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

In his study, which was featured in The Economist magazine, Prof. Sharman showed how he managed to set up a shell company under anonymous ownership in the UK in the space of 45 minutes over the Internet. And he said that OECD countries appeared to be flouting the international laws they had created.

The ease of setting up anonymous companies in Delaware had made it a centre of tax evasion and had attracted scores of Eastern European entities sheltering their income from home country authorities, Mr. Silva said.

"Delaware law does not require that companies declare their beneficial owners," Mr. Silva said. "They are openly promoting secrecy as a selling point." Along with Nevada and Wyoming, Delaware was "stealing business" from more strictly regulated, legitimate offshore centres.

OECD countries should be asked to raise their standards, just as British Overseas Territories were being asked, Mr. Silva said, adding: "There is no level playing field."

"The truth is privately acknowledged by government officials and many politicians but is never publicly acknowledged," Mr. Silva said.

The Caymans offered a higher standard of regulation than most OECD countries, he added, and was a provider of sophisticated financial services.

Mr. Silva's comments sparked a lively debate on a panel also including Bob Roach, counsel and chief investigator for the US Senate's Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations. As reported in yesterday's edition, Mr. Roach said legislation to counter Delaware's lack of transparency was in the pipeline.

Afterwards, Mr. Silva told The Royal Gazette: "My view is that we [offshore financial centres] have to tell our side of the story.

"We are not the ones to be blamed for the financial crisis. In fact, we can be part of the solution, if there is a genuine interest in correcting the problems that occurred in the financial services industry.

"With the expertise and the infrastructure we have, we can assist in the recovery."

Though there is often perceived to be rivalry between the Caymans and Bermuda, Mr. Silva said each jurisdiction had its strengths and there was little overlap in business.

"Bermuda is more developed in terms of its institutions and government and we look to what's happening in Bermuda to see what might happen in our future, when our government develops more," Mr. Silva said.

Immigration policy was a major challenge in both countries, and the need to balance the interests of the local population with those of sophisticated international businesses.

While Bermuda has its work permit time limits, the Caymans has a "rollover" policy, which requires workers not considered "key" to leave after seven years.

This had led to the departure of some valuable staff and also made it harder to recruit talent, Mr. Silva said.

"We have to make sure we have the right calibre of people to work in our financial services industry," he said. "We need to be able to attract experts from overseas, as we have a small population in the Caymans.

"It does not make sense for someone to move to a jurisdiction for a few years in this industry - they want to be able to have a career. Some of our law firms with offices in different jurisdictions have overcome this by moving their staff to different offices for a time.

"But for others, if you come to the Caymans from London and then you go back after seven years, you have to start again."

He said government needed to use the "key workers" clause in the rules to ensure that the islands' major industry was not damaged.