Brussels, 03/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - George Osborne, the British finance minister, announced on Thursday 2 May that several of the UK's overseas territories have agreed to share bank account information with tax authorities of the UK as well as of France, Germany, Italy and Spain, which have agreed to extend as far as possible their automatic exchange of information about bank accounts held by their passport-holders in countries overseas (like the United States' FATCA law, see EUROPE 10827 and 10835). Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands have agreed to share bank account information held by foreigners, whether individuals, companies, foundations, trust funds or other bodies. The Cayman Islands made a similar commitment last week. Osborne said this was “a significant step forward in tackling illicit finance and sets the global standard in the fight against tax evasion”. The Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands in particular are highly prized tax havens for hedge funds, cover companies and secretive trust funds and foundations, with the Cayman Islands featuring in the world's Top Ten global financial centres, being used for money-laundering and tax evasion, although it got itself off the OECD blacklist of non-cooperative jurisdictions in 2009 by signing a number of agreements to provide information to tax authorities. (FG/transl.fl)