The OECD reports that “significant strides” have been made by the Global Forum on Tax Transparency with plans for automatic exchange information on course to commence in 2017. Ireland has committed to commence automatic information exchange by 2017.

Panama and the Cook Islands are the latest financial centers to join these commitments for automatic exchange bringing the total number of jurisdictions involved to 96.

According to the OECD, the Global Forum has already established a real-time monitoring process to keep track of the delivery of the commitments made and to identify areas where support is needed and the Forum has started to assess the confidentiality standards and data safeguards in all the committed jurisdictions. With financial information set to begin to be collected from 1 January 2016 in around 50 jurisdictions, the OECD says that governments around the world are changing their domestic laws to ensure financial institutions report information on financial assets held for non-residents.

Barbados was the latest venue for the Global Forum meeting.