11.   Meanwhile another industry had sprung up -- offshore banks.

12.   Not all offshore banks are shells.

13.   Now residents of those old ports of call venture here to make or protect their fortunes in offshore banks and businesses.

14.   Officials said that transferring the money to offshore banks made legal action by the scam victims to recover it virtually impossible.

15.   Offshore banks and tax havens hide and launder the large amounts of cash that are central to illegal arms sales.

16.   Offshore banks provide a variety of financial services to foreign investors, such as trust funds and mutual funds and tax-free deposits.

17.   Rossiyskiy Kredit Bank of Russia last year joined the ranks of offshore banks in Bahrain.

18.   Regulators took the action about two weeks ago after problems were found by a special task force set-up to investigate offshore banks after bank failures earlier this year.

19.   Some offshore banks listed on the BSE are listed in U.S. dollars.

20.   The definition of an offshore bank is a bank that is not allowed to take customers from the country in which it is located.