What is an IFC?
There is no consensus on what constitutes an “international financial centre” (IFC). Similarly there is no agreement on the scope of more pejorative terms such as “tax haven”. However, tabloid newspapers (and many international policy debates) still appear to rely on the reputation test as set ou
t in a 1981 United States IRS report: "a country is a tax haven if it looks like one and if it is considered to be one by those who care".[1] This absence of a precise definition undermines clarity in the debate about the contribution of IFCs to the global economy.
In a recent IMF paper on the subject, economist Ahmed Zoromé has proposed a new definition, using methodology distinguishing such centres based strictly on their macroeconomic features and avoiding subjective presumptions on their activities or regulatory frameworks, describing offshore centres as follows:
a country or jurisdiction that provides financial services to non-residents on a scale that is incommensurate with the size and the financing of its domestic economy.[2]
Mr. Zoromé includes within this definition the United Kingdom, Ireland, 
The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Singapore, Switzerland and the jurisdictions where IFC Forum members are headquartered (Bermuda, Cayman and Jersey). The IMF has recognised the arbitrary distinction between “offshore” and “onshore” and has recently abandoned this division for its financial sector assessment program. In fact, over 70 nations in the world offer some kind of preferential tax treatment to non-resident investors, with the U.K. and the U.S. hosting the largest such markets in the world. “Offshore” facilities for non-resident clients include tax-free bank deposits, funds and investment management, bonds and locally established trusts or companies.
The Qatar Financial Centre and Z/Yen Group produces a Global Financial Centres index identifying and noting (by importance) the world's leading financial centres including New York, London, Hong Kong and Singapore. Their listing includes smaller centres such as Jersey, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. The latest GFCI published in September 2011 is available here.
As in any area of activity there is a spectrum of quality and orientation. IFC Forum members are domiciled in the main British offshore jurisdictions which have been acknowledged in supranational benchmarking surveys, including the OECD, FATF and IMF, as being amongst the best regulated international financial centres in the world.
[1] United States IRS, Tax Havens and their Use by United States Taxpayers: An Overview, 1981.
[2] Ahmed Zoromé, Concept of Offshore Financial Centres: In Search of an Operational Definition, 2007 IMF Working Paper WP/07/87.