Gold Magazine December 2013 - January 2014, Issue 33 | Page 76

opinion

{economy}

Cyprus and
Transparency
Putting the OECD report into context
By Andreas Neocleous

T

here has been considerable publicity in
the financial media
regarding the fact
that Cyprus, together
with the British Virgin Islands, Luxembourg and Seychelles,
has been assessed as non-compliant with international information exchange standards
by the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax
Purposes. It is important to put this issue
into a proper context.
Compliance with international information exchange standards is assessed in
two phases. The Phase One assessment
focuses on whether the requisite legal and
institutional infrastructure and procedures
are in place for effective information exchange to be possible. Phase Two focuses
on H