In the UK, offshore bank accounts have traditionally been financial products offered by high street banks in their branches or their subsidiaries in Guernsey, the Isle of Man or Jersey, for those with tens of thousands or more pounds to invest.
 
Paradoxically, you will not be able to open one of these savings or current bank accounts if you are a resident of these tax havens themselves.
 
Those still offering this offshore service are all the main high street banks such as Bank of Scotland, Barclay's, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Santander, and so on; or other banks and building societies such as the Britannia Building Society or Northern Rock. They all offer access to your money anywhere in the world, but interest on savings is sometimes only marginally higher than other financial products, such as ISAs.
 
Is it a good idea to invest or save in a bank abroad and so avoid domestic tax?
These banking practices are now under investigation by the UK government and by no less a group than the G20 group of industrialized nations with a view to making offshore tax havens illegal around the world.
 
Furthermore, recent legal cases have challenged the anonymity of German nationals with bank accounts in, say, Switzerland. There has been a double-taxation treaty between that country and the USA effectively stopping Swiss banking secrecy, as Swiss banks will now notify the American Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of your bank account details there, whether on- or off-shore, if asked on a 'specific' basis; and the national tax service, as the IRS has done, will ask you first to let them know about your own offshore banking arrangement.
 
In fact, the IRS has done so retrospectively in the case of tens of thousands of Americans with Swiss bank accounts and is being in this first instance "lenient" about the information given.
 
New double taxation agreements are hurriedly being signed with other countries, too, bringing to an end traditional Swiss banking secrecy. The country where over one third of all worldwide private bank deposits are held is instead re-emphasizing its reliability and "traditional banking roots".
 
The IRS in 2009 listed such potentially 'abusive' offshore schemes as:
 
1. Foreign trusts
2. Foreign corporations
3. Foreign (offshore) partnerships, LLCs and LLPs
4. International Business Companies (IBCs)
5. Offshore private annuities
6. Private banking (U.S. and offshore)
7. Personal investment companies
8. Captive insurance companies
9. Offshore bank accounts and credit cards
10. Related-party loans
 
All of which means that investors in such a product which involves tax avoidance or tax planning - anywhere in the world - should be aware that their details may at some near point in the future become available to the 'home' countries' tax authorities.
 
Investments which promise secrecy or privacy, therefore, should be avoided.
 
Online banking has raised other issues; and you should be aware - as with accounts held in Icelandic banks recently - that the banking legislation for accounts in that country is applicable, and not where you are accessing your account.
 
Online technology is a further reason why a renewed system of international bank and tax regulation is likely.
 
A newer kind of product of interest to international residents is a current account which offers convenient banking services anywhere in the world. This is a so-called 'international' bank account.

Useful websites
 
(Online banking services are also available)
 
www.abbeyinternational.com
www.bankofscotland-international.com
www.barclay.com/banking
www.britanniainternational.com
www.offshore.hsbc.com
www.lloydstsb-offshore.com
www.northernrock-guernsey.co.gg
 
National tax authorities for the UK and USA are the Inland Revenue and Internal Revenue Service (or see your own government's equivalent department's information on rules and regulations):
 
www.hmrc.gov.uk
www.irs.gov
 
Swiss banks
 
www.credit-suisse.com
www.ubs.com