BNP Paribas to close Cayman Islands business: Attac website

[PARIS] French bank BNP Paribas plans to close its remaining business in the Cayman Islands, campaign group Attac reported on its website on Tuesday, in the wake of the Panama Papers revelations about tax havens.

Attac - the Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions and Aid to Citizens - cited the minutes of a May 3 meeting of the finance committee of the French bank's central works council.

BNP Paribas had no immediate comment.

The report comes a day before BNP Paribas Deputy Chief Operating Officer Jacques d'Estais is due to appear at a French Senate hearing relating to the Panama Papers, a collection of leaked data from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that put the spotlight on how the world's rich use offshore tax regimes.

Earlier in May, the United Nations named the Cayman Islands along with the British Virgin Islands as British tax havens that had received some US$72 billion of company funds last year.

REUTERS