05 April AtoZForex, Amsterdam — Panama papers, a term that has been swirled around the media and news over recently, is in fact the largest data leak in history. The case revealed 2,700GB of data about the powerful and rich, on how they utilize offshore tax havens to mask their wealth. The files got leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.
From the leaked Panama papers, the powerful clients of Mossack Fonseca have been able to avoid tax, launder money and dodge sanctions swiftly. These powerful individuals include dictators, former heads of state and over 60 associates with the head of state or politicians worldwide.
To sum a few, it encompasses data about the close associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the brother in-law of Xi Jinping, the late father of UK PM David Cameron, Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, but also members of the governing body of FIFA.
Data of 214,000 entities were leaked
The Süddeutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, obtained the data and thereafter it got sent to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) for investigation, which took over a year. The majority of data consists out of emails, other types of data that were leaked are contracts and passports.
Compared to the 2010 Wikileaks, which is about 1.7 GB data, the recent Panama papers leak encompasses a data leak about 2,700GB, which is equivalent to 11.5 million documents. Aside information about head figures, the Panama papers also contained data from 214,000 entities.
Panama papers compared to Wikileaks (Source: ICIJ)
Panama papers impact on Forex market
The second quarter of 2016 has started and aside the generally known negatives of the market, traders have been asking the question what the impact is on the Global or Forex market? At the moment there is no evident impact yet, but the industry experts at CNBC stated a few implications that should be considered.
First off, more regulatory scrutiny is expected on offshore accounts and forex brokers. Secondly, European banks will be monitored more closely, considering that most of the active creators were found to be banks from the EU. Especially the US prosecutors will up scale their scrutiny. Lastly, the overall taxation will become stricter, with probably higher taxes levied on the wealthiest individuals and more general bank regulations.
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