The European Parliament inquiry committee on the Panama Papers (the PANA committee) has searched a mega-database of leaked documents to find out more about the intermediaries between wealthy clients and corporate service providers such as Mossack Fonseca and has produced a revealing report.

The Panama Papers, whose first anniversary fell yesterday, came after the so-called 'Offshore Leaks' in 2013 but before the Bahamas leaks in September 2016. The International Consortium of Investiagive Journalists put them on a searchable database and the European MPs, mainly from the Green Party, crunched some numbers.

Despite the limitations of the database, section one of the report provides interesting results in terms of the geographical allocation of intermediaries.

• Hong Kong is the jurisdiction that hosts the most intermediaries mentioned in the Panama Papers, the Offshore Leaks and the Bahamas Leaks.
• After that, the top ten countries where intermediaries are located are: the United Kingdom, the United States, Taiwan, Switzerland, Singapore, the Bahamas, China, Panama and Indonesia. This illustrates the obvious point that the problems uncovered by the Panama Papers or the Bahamas Leaks are global.
• Asia is the continent that hosts the highest number of intermediaries but Europe accounts for nearly one-quarter of all intermediaries listed on the database. Two countries from Europe continent – the United Kingdom and Switzerland – are mentioned among the Top ten countries hosting intermediaries.
• Asia, Europe and North/Central America combined make up 90% of all intermediaries, leaving South America, Africa and Oceania far behind in the offshore business.
• Looking at the European Union more specifically, the MEPs could not fail to noticed the important role that the United Kingdom is playing, followed by Luxembourg, and then remotely by Spain, Cyprus, France and Germany.  

 
Section two of the report looks in more detail at these intermediaries' identities. The MEPs compiled a list of 140 international intermediaries (active in at least three different countries) from large banks to the famous 'Big Four' accountancy firms, along with other intermediaries who are less known publicly. The findings are as follows.

• UBS and Credit Suisse are the largest international intermediaries, creating together as many offshore entities as the next three.
• Of the 140 international intermediaries that the report identifies, 127 (nearly 90%) have at least one active business unit or subsidiary located in Europe. This shows that Europe is a highly desirable location for international intermediaries.
• Unsurprisingly, banks from Switzerland and Luxembourg are at the heart of the business of offshore company intermediation, but major French banks seem to have been very involved as well, as three of the main ones (Société Générale, Crédit Agricole and BNP Paribas) rank among the 'top ten' European banks.
• All of the 'Big Four' (Deloitte & Touche, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, KPMG and Ernst & Young) are identified as international intermediaries, with Deloitte (12) and PwC (18) making it into the 'top 20' international intermediaries.
• Many names among these 140 international intermediaries remain unknown to the wider public. They are law firms, corporate service providers and consultants which intervened as middle-men between wealthy clients and service providers such as Mossack Fonseca.

The Panama Papers revealed 14,110 of the leaked intermediaries; the Offshore Leaks revealed 9,525; and the Bahamas Leaks revealed 541.

The top 12 international intermediaries are as follows.
 

• UBS operates in the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Jersey, Luxembourg, Monaco, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, US, Indonesia and Canada.
• Crédit Suisse operates in Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, UAE, UK, US, Bahamas, China, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Liechtenstein and Monaco.
• next comes Trident Corporate Services which operates in the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man.
• next comes Offshore Business Consultant Ltd, based in Hong Kong, China
• next, Orion House Services operate in Belize, Hong Kong and Jersey.
• next, Prime Corporate Solutions operate in Hong Kong, Luxembourg and Gibraltar.
• Citibank operates in the UK, Singapore, Jersey, Switzerland, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the US, the Bahamas and Jersey.
• GSL Law & Consulting operates in Russia and Cyprus.
• HSBC operates in Singapore, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, the UK, the US, Guernsey, the Bahamas and Switzerland.
• at number 10, Ansbacher operates in the Bahamas, Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands.
• at number 11 comes Power Point Management, operating in Taiwan and Vietnam.
• at 12 comes Deloitte & Touche in Taiwan, the UK, the Isle of Man, Chile, Luxembourg, China, Hong Kong and Panama.