OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría issued a statement today in response to the weekend’s revelations on the “Panama Papers”.
He noted:
*”While the ‘Panama Papers’ data expose nefarious activities, they also show a decline in the use of offshore companies and bearer share companies, which is a testament to the incredible transformation effected in the last 7 years to establish robust international standards on tax transparency, including on beneficial ownership: 132 jurisdictions have committed to the standard on exchange of information ‘on request.’ Of those, 96 jurisdictions will introduce automatic exchange of financial account information within the next 2 years. Almost 100 jurisdictions have joined the [Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters](http://www.oecd.org/ctp/exchange-of-tax-information/conventiononmutualadministrativeassistanceintaxmatters.htm).*
*”As a result of our in-depth peer review process, the use of bearer share companies is close to being eliminated across the world, and the beneficial ownership rules have been strengthened to ensure that information is now available to tax authorities when they need it.”*
Click [here](http://www.oecd.org/tax/statement-from-oecd-secretary-general-angel-gurria-on-the-panama-papers.htm) for the full Statement and [here](http://www.oecd.org/tax/questions-and-answers-on-panama-papers.htm) for a Q&A