French Banks Agree To Close Operations In Grey List Countries

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

05 October 2009

French banks have undertaken that they will close all of their branches and subsidiaries in countries on the OECD “grey list” after March 2010.

This decision was announced following a meeting between President Nicolas Sarkozy, members of the government and financial leaders. It also follows a similar disclosure by BNP Paribas that it would close its activities in “grey list” jurisdictions, i.e. those that have not yet substantially implemented the OECD standard on transparency and information exchange. However, at the time, BNP Paribas gave no timeframe for their withdrawal.

The shutdown would also affect the French banks’ operations in countries that had yet to establish an agreement implementing the OECD standard with France by March 2010, even if they had managed to be taken off the “grey list”.

The agreement by the French banks follows the recent meeting of the G20 group of countries in Pittsburgh, where it was concluded that the group was ready to use “countermeasures” against jurisdictions considered to have been reluctant in establishing tax transparency and the exchange of tax information by March 2010.

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