Luxembourg to ease the secrecy surrounding its banks

Luxembourg has fought hard to maintain the secrecy of its banking system

Luxembourg has said it will ease the secrecy surrounding its banks.

It said it would implement rules on the automatic exchange of bank account information with its European Union partners from 2015. Calls for this have been increasing, as governments seek to raise more taxes to support their finances.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said Luxembourg would introduce the reforms in two years. "We can introduce [the rules] without any danger from January 2015," he said.

Luxembourg is a country of only 500,000 people, but its banks and other financial institutions have assets worth more than 20 times the country's economic output. Luxembourg's foreign minister, Luc Frieden, said at the weekend that he wanted to "strengthen co-operation with foreign tax authorities".

Last week, Germany signed a tax evasion treaty with Switzerland - another European banking centre known for its secrecy. The treaty is designed to give the German tax authorities the ability to claw back taxes from their citizens who may be hiding money in Swiss banks.

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BBC | News Business