The era of banking secrecy is over, according to the statement emanating out of the G20 meeting held in London this week.

The leaders of the world’s top 20 industrialised nations also pledged “to take action against non-cooperative jurisdictions, including tax havens”.

“We stand ready to deploy sanctions to protect our public finances and financial systems,” the communiqué noted ominously.

The G20 had billed the discussion on the need for better regulation of cross-border financial services as a major plank of its agenda this week in London.

The statement flowing from the discussions also drew attention to a list published yesterday by the OECD of countries assessed by the Global Forum as being against the international standard for exchange of tax information.

Professional bodies have been quick to comment on the statement.

David Harvey, chief executive of The Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners said: "We welcome the commitment by the G20 to raise the number of participants in the OECD process of exchange of information. But exchanging information is only effective when reliable information, relevant to the tax requirements of a requesting jurisdiction can be made available, in a timely manner, and there are legal mechanisms that enable the information to be obtained and exchanged.  

"This requires clear rules regarding the maintenance of accounting records and access to such records. The G20 is right to insist that nations exchange information it should now make sure that  all nations, including offshore centres and OECD members collect, and exchange such information themselves. "

Separately, in a statement, AIMA, the London-based alternatives investments market trade body supported the thrust of the proposals on financial stability. “We are determined to do everything we can to assist international policy makers in preventing systemic instability in the future and the most important way we can do that is through the provision of information. If policy makers can get, through improved information, a better sense of concentrations of risk in global financial markets, then they will be better placed to prevent future instability,” the association said.