G20 urges global community to end banking secrecy

The Group of 20 economic powers on Friday urged the global adoption of standards for sharing bank account information in an effort to fight tax evasion and curtail banking secrecy.

The G20 said they "strongly encourage" all countries to sign on to a commitment to the automatic exchange of banking information "which is expected to be the standard," in the group's strongest endorsement yet of a move that takes aim especially at tax havens.

"More needs to be done to address the issues of international tax avoidance and evasion, in particular through tax havens, as well as non-cooperative jurisdictions," the G20 said in a statement on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings.

It urged all countries to accept the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, a framework for the sharing of banking data.

"We welcome progress made towards automatic exchange of information which is expected to be the standard and urge all jurisdictions to move towards exchanging information automatically with their treaty partners, as appropriate."