Who says that a little pressure doesn’t work these day? Singapore and Liechtenstein have both apparently decided that they wanted to be one of the cool kids after all. This week, both countries received word that they are slated to be removed from the dreaded gray list of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The gray list is a list of countries – more than 30 currently – who have made noise about increasing financial transparency but have not taken the necessary steps.
In the case of Singapore, it had publicly endorsed the transparency standard for tax purposes earlier in the year but had not signed the requisite number of financial agreements with other countries. It will hit the magic number *12* when it signs an Avoidance of Double Taxation Agreement or DTA with France this week. Singapore has also renegotiated agreements or signed new agreements with Mexico, Qatar, Norway, Austria, Australia, the Netherlands, UK, Denmark, New Zealand, Belgium and Bahrain.
Similarly, Liechtenstein has agreed two new treaties with Belgium and the Netherlands, respectively. Liechtenstein has also signed agreements with Germany, France, UK and the US. It is negotiating with Italy, Sweden and Norway.
The countries follow on the heels of Switzerland and Austria, which were removed from the grey list in September. This brings to 15 the number of countries which have been moved to the “substantially implemented” category since April 2009. The fallout from UBS is widely viewed to have contributed to the rush to be considered “mainstream.” The OECD is laughing all the way to the, er, transparent banks…
