Under the terms of the agreement, the Cayman Islands has agreed to obtain and share information with the UK on all reportable accounts on an annual basis under the terms of an existing double tax agreement.
The sort of information to be provided is the name, address, date of birth and, where available, the UK national insurance number of each account, the account number, the name of the reporting Cayman Islands financial institution and, where provided, the Global Intermediary Identification Number (GIIN).
The Cayman Islands has gone to some lengths to amend the public perception that offshore financial centres act as tax havens.
In April, the premier Juliana O’Connor-Connolly wrote to the UK prime minister David Cameron to offer to join the G5 countries’ pilot project on the automatic exchange of bank account information.
In the letter, the Cayman premier said she wanted a "fair share of recognition" from the UK government that it was tackling tax evasion and promoting transparency in line with the agenda of the G5 pilot project countries: France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK.
This came a month after the former premier of the Cayman Islands, McKeeva Bush, was charged with 11 counts of breech of trust, misconduct and theft.
Bush’s arrest came at a time when offshore financial centres were under attack for their perceived role in enabling individuals and companies to avoid and evade taxes, and helping criminals to hide and launder money.
