UNRAVELLING the ‘supposed mystery’ of what sort of business takes place in Guernsey will be a key part of an independent review into British offshore financial centres.

Michael Foot (pictured), who is tasked with leading the review into the financial business of the Crown Dependencies ordered by Chancellor Alistair Darling, was in the island yesterday to meet local political and financial figures and gave a brief glimpse of the direction in which it was heading.

‘There is a huge amount of ignorance about what business is done in these jurisdictions and we want to demystify that as much as possible.’

He also hoped the report might go some way to providing some sort of clarity on what constituted tax evasion and what did not, as well as on the subject of tax havens.

It should also come as no surprise, he added, that major countries were looking towards financial centres as targets to cover the deficits that had emerged in recent years in their budgets as a result of the global economic crisis.

So far, Mr Foot has visited seven of the nine locations subject to the review.