Austria, one of the few holdouts on the bank secrecy laws, is now aiming to agree within the next few weeks to provide other European countries access to bank account details of foreigners in their financial system. According to Chancellor Wener Faymann, it is allowing itself to participate in discussions over the bank secrecy with other non-EU states such as Switzerland.
Faymann said he hoped to have a deal signed before the May 22 European Union summit that would discuss means to address the tax evasion activities of individuals. The total cost of such illegal activities amount to Eur1 trillion or US$1.30 trillion in lost income for EU member states. Many EU members are convincing Austria to enter into an agreement before the said summit.
In an interview aired by ORF, an Austrian media outlet, "We want to achieve a result for an exchange of data in the interest of fighting fraud in Europe. The biggest economic damage would be if we got the reputation of protecting frauds. Austrians don't find this necessary and I have spoken with bank managers who also don't find it necessary."
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