The end of the great inversion: offshore national banks and the global financial crisis

Abstract

Here we present a novel analysis of the geographic evolution of international banking since 1980, which addresses still unanswered questions about the role of offshore centers in the global financial crisis, and the post-crisis stability of these centers. We show that post-1980 regulatory shifts prompted a 'Great Inversion' of offshore banking, wherein conventional Euromarket activity was partially overshadowed by the growth of European 'midshore' center national banks. As a result, offshore jurisdictions (i) were likely more responsible for pre-crisis regulatory failures in a home than host regulator capacity and (ii) internalized far greater domestic fiscal risks than in previous crises.