Replication material: 'Exit through the gift shop: The Estimated Size of Offshore Banking' (Binder, Miethe & Olk, 2025)

Offshore banking enables money creation outside of national regulation. How significant is this phenomenon? This article provides the first comprehensive estimate of Eurodollar banking, the unregulated creation of the United States’ currency under another jurisdiction’s law. Drawing on economic history and interviews with market participants, we conceptualize the Eurodollar system as comprising loans, bonds, and foreign exchange derivatives. Applying a novel measurement method to Bank for International Settlements (BIS) data, we estimate that in 2023, $11.4 trillion in loans and bonds and $75.8 trillion across all instruments constituted unregulated offshore dollars, exceeding the volume of regulated cross-border U.S. dollar instruments. Geographically, Europe – particularly the City of London – remain central to the system. Offshore banking allows privileged private actors to circumvent public rules. It underpins other offshore financial services such as tax planning or sanctions evasion. Yet the recent regulation of Eurodollar futures suggests a latent capacity for public control.