In April 2009, the G20 Leaders declared that “the era of banking secrecy is over”:

"We have today also issued a Declaration, Strengthening the Financial System. In particular we agree: ... to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens. We stand ready to deploy sanctions to protect our public finances and financial systems. The era of banking secrecy is over. We note that the OECD has today published a list of countries assessed by the Global Forum against the international standard for exchange of tax information"

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (the Global Forum) was called on to deliver this result. Today, the Global Forum has over 160 member jurisdictions and has achieved massive progress in implementing the international tax transparency and exchange of information standards. With the strong backing of the G20 and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Global Forum has produced the most impactful international project against offshore tax evasion in history.

“Over the past year, the Global Forum has made huge strides in securing global transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes in order to equip governments with the tools needed to raise much needed revenues. This is demonstrated by the completion of the first peer review programme to assess the effectiveness in practice of the implementation of the AEOI Standard for almost 100 jurisdictions. Along with the rest of the Global Forum’s work, this shows the impressive global progress by the international community to ensure that exchange of information is effective.

As I come to the end of my time as Chair of the Global Forum, I want to express my thanks to all members for their impressive dedication and hard work. We can be truly proud of our achievements, and I am sure there will be many more to come.”

Maria José Garde, General Director of Taxes in the Spanish Ministry of Finance, Former Chair of the Global Forum (2017-2022)