Offshore News: September 2009

30.09.2009 The reliable French bank BNP Paribas is planning to close its activities in jurisdictions that have failed to comply with the OECD standard on transparency and information exchange.
Chief Executive of BNP Paribas said that bank's subsidiaries in jurisdictions featured on the OECD's grey list would be closed; however, this proposal would not be implemented immediately and there is flexibility taking into account that the grey list is regularly updated.
According to Chief Executive, BNP Paribas has “half a dozen” subsidiaries in low tax jurisdictions, but only two of them are located in OECD 'grey listed' territories – Bahamas and Panama. These two jurisdictions have not yet substantially implemented the twelve TIEA quota set at the G20 summit of April 2. The Bahamas has recently signed its 2nd tax information exchange agreement with Monaco.