The US is reportedly clamping down on "anonymous companies" following the release of the Panama Papers.

New rules were announced yesterday to help fight tax evasion, money laundering and financial crime, amid intensifying scrutiny over the use of offshore accounts and anonymous companies to hide money, The Washington Post reported.

The rules include requiring financial institutions to establish and keep records on the “real owners” behind companies that use their services, it said.

The move comes after millions of client documents were obtained from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Foneseca last month.

As highlighted by The Washington Post, “there’s nothing illegal about the use of offshore companies; in practice, however, criminals take advantage of the anonymity that these companies provide.”

Meanwhile, this week Family Wealth Report covered the findings of a report by an academic who believes that public registers of beneficial ownership won't necessarily stamp out flows of dirty money, and that there are more effective instruments at hand.

Separately, also this week the IRS said it will be hiring between 600 and 700 new federal tax enforcement personnel, with additional human resources to boost the number of audits and investigations it carries out.

“This will be our first significant enforcement hiring in more than five years,” IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said in an email to IRS employees.