Progress in tax haven plan?

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/may/02/tax-haven-strategy-george-osborne
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George Osborne claims to have won a significant victory in his campaign to open up secretive British tax havens by revealing that all British overseas territories with significant financial centres have signed up to the government's strategy on global tax transparency.

In a statement, the Treasury said that Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands have agreed to much greater levels of transparency of bank accounts held in those jurisdictions, following on from a similar agreement signed by the Cayman Islands.

They have agreed to automatically share information bilaterally with the UK and multilaterally within the G5, made up of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Under this agreement, much greater levels of information about bank accounts will be exchanged on a multilateral basis as part of a move towards a new global standard.

Osborne hailed the agreement as "a significant step forward" in the fight against tax evasion and illicit finance, one of the chief themes of the UK's chairmanship of the forthcoming G8 meeting, which is being held in Northern Ireland in June. The chancellor has been working closely with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to try to develop clearer tax transparency rules, and the agreements highlighted by the Treasury will be closely studied to see how effective they will prove in reality.

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