Automatic Exchange Of Information (AEI)

The international movement to end banking secrecy has gained new momentum with the enactment in the United States of its 2010 Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act or FATCA. The law obliges foreign banks to report to the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on the offshore holdings of US clients in excess of 50,000 euros. The move prompted five European countries -- Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain -- to call for a generalised automatic exchange of information in 2011.

As a result of the above and in the context of improving international tax compliance by further building on their relationship with respect to mutual assistance in tax matters, the Global Forum of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development ("OECD") developed the common reporting standard ("CRS") for the automatic exchange of financial account information.