The report claims that the industry is still as secretive as it was when it was created in the early 1980s, and cites as an example the fact that Cook Islanders are not permitted to sit in on bank-related court cases, as a result of secrecy provisions under the International Trust Act.

The Cook Islands were recently stirred into anger by a television programme screened in New Zealand, which pointed the finger at the Cook Islands and Nauru as possible destinations for the assets of Osama bin Laden, but failed to mention Niue or the Marshall Islands, despite the fact that both are also included on the OECD blacklist. At the time, the Commissioner for Offshore Financial Services, Mathilda Uhrle, condemned the report as 'lacking professional integrity'.

Although the Cook Islands are currently included on both the OECD and FATF blacklists of 'uncooperative countries', Finance Secretary Kevin Carr said recently that he was hopeful of the jurisdiction's removal at the next FATF plenary meeting, explaining that the establishment of a Financial Intelligence Unit should satisfy many of the multilateral bodies' remaining concerns.