BNP Paribas to close Cayman business

BNP Paribas is set to close its remaining two branches in the Cayman Islands following the Panama Papers revelations of tax havens. The closure was reported after a meeting of the bank's finance committee, days before Jacques d'Estais, BNP Paribas Deputy COO, is due to attend a French Senate hearing relating to the Panama Papers.

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 3 May meeting of the finance committee of the French bank's central works council.

BNP declined to comment on the report, but said in an email statement that it had closed two subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands and currently had two branches there.

According to its annual report, the remaining branches are linked to the Bank of the West, BNP Paribas' retail bank in the United States, and the corporate and institutional banking division of BNP Paribas.

Attac's 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 $72 billion (50 billion pounds) of company funds last year.