Cracks in the shell

Introduction of beneficial ownership rules and massive dumps of hacked financial data raising transparency in banking and payment systems mean that shell companies are coming under close scrutiny. Used for structuring transactions but otherwise without much in the way of economic purpose, these corporations have been cited in aggressive accounting and tax planning schemes, some legal, some not, and are commonplace in complex fraud and corruption investigations. Light touch regulation may be coming to an end but does this mean shell structures are set to disappear from international private and commercial business? FI correspondents take international soundings: Raghavendra Verma, in New Delhi; James Bargent, in Medellín; Sara Lewis, in Brussels; and Ed Zwirn, in New York.