The IFC and Tax Havens

Inequality is rising around the world. Fighting inequality must be an integrated priority for everyone in development, to promote and achieve sustainable development.

Oxfam analysis reveals that 51 of the 68 companies that were lent money by the World Bank’s private lending arm in 2015 to finance investments in sub-Saharan Africa use tax havens. Together these companies, whose use of tax havens has no apparent link to their core business, received 84 percent of the International Finance Corporation’s investments in the region last year.

As the World Bank and IMF prepare for their Spring Meeting in Washington 13–15 April, and in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal which reveals how powerful individuals and companies are using tax havens to hide wealth and dodge taxes, Oxfam is calling on the World Bank Group to put safeguards in place to ensure that its clients can prove they are paying their fair share of tax.