Panama must be put under extra pressure by the G20 group of nations, banks, investors and trading partners to transform its financial transparency rules in the wake of the Panama Papers scandal, says the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), The Financial Times reported.
”The whole world” should talk to the Panamanian authorities, said Angel Gurria, the OECD secretary general, at a press conference on Tuesday, according to The Financial Times.
While many countries had made considerable progress in raising transparency standards, Panama was ”a huge exception,” he said.
Gurria said that ”the level of tolerance” in the world for lax financial standards had declined in recent years not just for ”moral and ethical” reasons but also on political grounds, The Financial Times writes.
Speaking in Berlin, Gurria emphasized the advances made in transparency, highlighting the agreement on the automatic exchange of bank information, which had now been approved by 94 countries. The number of international tax information exchange agreements had grown from 40 in 2008 to 3,000.
Some EUR 50 billion in extra tax revenues had flowed into exchequers through voluntary tax payments from taxpayers who were concerned about the impact of the agreement coming into force next year, Gurria said, according to the report.
”The `Panama Papers` revelations have shone the light on Panama`s culture and practice of secrecy,” Gurria added.
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