Sir Philip Bailhache said legislative and process changes had been made after the island was listed as an "unco-operative jurisdiction" in August because of outstanding tax information requests from the French authorities.
He added that he was confident that Jersey would demonstrate to French ministers that the island was responding to the blacklisting by exchanging tax information more effectively.
"There have been certain requests for information made by the French under the terms of our TIEA [Tax Information Exchange Agreement] that remain outstanding,” the minister said.
The main reason for this was that these cases had been appealed and would need to be resolved in the Jersey courts, he said.
France’s ministry of finance has indicated Jersey would be removed from the list once it was satisfied Jersey’s tax information exchange was effective when responding to requests and the outstanding issues were resolved.
Jersey Finance, the group that represents the island’s financial centre, has welcomed the assurances.
Geoff Cook, Jersey Finance chief executive, said the most recent meeting between Jersey’s government and French officials had been a constructive one. The focus now was making sure the French authorities were happy with the speed and efficacy of how Jersey responds to information requests.
He added: “It is important to stress that Jersey has an excellent track record of exchanging information under the terms of its network of 32 TIEAs, and, underlining its commitment to meeting international obligations, amendments are now being made to the regulations relating to information exchange which should further reassure foreign tax authorities.”
