Gary Gensler may have given an unexpected boost Tuesday to the economy of the tiny island nation of Mauritius.
Gensler, a financier-turned-chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was speaking at a congressional hearing about the cat-and-mouse game between the agencies that write financial rules and the firms that always seem to find loopholes.
One way firms typically try to get around U.S. rules is through offshore legal entities. Although authorities are busily trying to close regulatory gaps, Gensler said that in several years U.S. regulators may still look back and realize, "They figured out something in the Mauritius islands or something."
A nation of 1.3 million people off the east coast of Africa, Mauritius reportedly offers numerous tax advantages — as well as favorable confidentiality policies — to businesses that form there. As of 2011, nearly 25,000 global business companies were licensed in Mauritius, according to the website of the country's Financial Services Commission.
Plus, the daily high temperature on the islands is almost always between the low 70s and the mid 80s.
