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| .: Isle of Man Finance Sector |
 The Isle of Man’s finance sector has been the driving force of its economy since 1968, when The Beatles began salting away money offshore to escape the clutches of the British taxman.
Initially, they had little idea about money and so handed over their cash to Kerruish, Kerruish, Kerruish and Kerruish Bank.
This was run by a father, mother, son and daughter all based in a tiny cottage in Cregneash and wasn’t so much a bank as a large room which they used to store cash. There were no branches and all transactions were done in the Hells Bells pub directly opposite Battery Pier – the first hostelry you saw when alighting from a ferry.
Billy Kerruish, the father, ran all of the financial aspects of the bank (mostly counting money and drinking), while his wife Mona kept the books and drank, while his daughter Milly answered letters and drank. Finally, the son Paul drank and collected debts – usually with a cricket bat.
KKKK Bank was notoriously lax at informing the taxman about accounts it held on behalf of clients and by decimalisation in 1971 (when the above picture was taken) had roughly £4.5 billion in the cottage’s spare bedroom – which is about £60 trillion in today’s money.
But the whole scheme failed when the family tried to get rid of their pre-decimal currency and trade it in at the Isle of Man Bank for the new notes and coins. Overnight, Isle of Man bank ran out of cash and the Manx government was forced to ration money for four weeks while new currency was printed.
The Kerruish family were rumbled soon afterwards during an investigation by Tynwald and were exiled to Jersey, where they began running much the same business.
However, with billions of pounds on the books, the government couldn’t simply scrap the bank or close it down and so decided to give the UK government the bum’s rush by setting up as a proper offshore tax haven. It divided the money between a number of startup banks, lowered the tax rates, and began an era of financial glory which has lasted to this day.Labels: Battery Pier, finance sector, Hells Bells, isle of man, Kerruish, KKKK bank
Written at 16:53 by
G
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Very interesting posts you have."