After a meeting Saturday with United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron, the leaders of six British overseas territories have agreed to make moves toward opening up information gathered from the financial services sector.
“We had a very clear agreement and constructive exchange of views on the practical steps needed to tackle the global problem of tax evasion and how the UK and the overseas territories will continue to apply our high standards of regulation to address this,” states a letter signed by Premier Dr. Orlando Smith and the leaders of Anguilla, Bermuda, Gibraltar, Montserrat and Turks and Caicos Islands.
Specifically, leaders agree to “play an active part” in the coming pilot programme of multilateral, automatic information exchange with the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
They’ll also prepare “national action plans” on how to meet the Financial Action Task Force’s recommendations on beneficial ownership and join a Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance on Tax Matters, according to the letter.
“We are committed to continuing to play a leading role in delivering a fair, responsible and effectively regulated global business environment,” the latter states.
See the June 20, 2013 edition for full coverage.
{fcomment}