More than 60 countries and jurisdictions have now committed to early adoption of this level of agreed transparency, and additional Global Forum members are expected to join this group in the coming months, the OECD said.
It comes after the Swiss Federal Council approved the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters on 9 October last year.
The declaration commits countries to implement a new single global standard on automatic exchange of information, which is intended to bring bank secrecy to an end.
OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría said that the “commitment by so many countries to implement the new global standard, and to do so quickly, is another major step towards ensuring that tax cheats have nowhere left to hide.”
The OECD said it will deliver a detailed commentary on the new standard, as well as technical solutions to implement the actual information exchanges, during a meeting of G20 finance ministers in September 2014.
G20 governments have mandated the OECD-hosted Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes to monitor and review implementation of the standard.
The new single global standard on automatic exchange of information was developed at the OECD and endorsed by G20 finance ministers in February last year. It obliges countries and jurisdictions to obtain all financial information from their financial institutions and exchange that information automatically with other jurisdictions on an annual basis.
To read research on how Singapore is predicted to overtake Switzerland to become the largest offshore private banking market by 2020, click here.
