Finance Minister Paula Cox looked to differentiate Bermuda from more secretive low-tax jurisdictions yesterday, when she argued that the Island was no "Johnny come lately" amid a widening move towards tax information exchange agreements (TIEAs) between countries.

Ms Cox said pressure applied by the G-20 group of the world's leading economic powers through threats to use sanctions against non-cooperative tax havens had sparked a rush of TIEAs.

Bermuda, which already has TIEAs in force with the US, UK and Australia, will soon bring that total up to 12, Ms Cox told the House of Assembly.

Ms Cox will sign seven agreements — one with each member of the Nordic Group — at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, DC, on April 16, and another with New Zealand at its Washington embassy. These agreements were the results of negotiations that started in 2006.

Negotiations with Germany have concluded and that TIEA will also be signed soon.

This is "only the beginning", Ms Cox added, as the Ministry of Finance is negotiating a further two TIEAs with OECD states and has begun preliminary discussions with another jurisdiction.

Last year an OECD sub-committee recommended that the new standard for countries was to have a minimum of 12 signed TIEAs.

Pressure mounted significantly on non-compliant jurisdictions last November when the G20 released its declared that "lack of transparency and a failure to exchange tax information should be vigorously addressed".

"In the intervening period and as recently as at the meetings of Finance Ministers held in London last week in preparation for the G20 summit, European leaders agreed to push for a global crackdown on tax havens and strict new regulation of hedge funds as part of a sweeping overhaul of financial rules designed to prevent future market meltdowns," Ms Cox said.

"They have reiterated their intentions to draw up a list of uncooperative jurisdictions — or tax havens — and putting together a 'toolbox of sanctions' as soon as possible.

"It is remarkable that in the past several weeks almost all of the holdout jurisdictions, the centres that allow bank secrecy laws to obstruct exchange of tax information at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) standard, have all capitulated to the standard that Bermuda led in establishing.

"We are proud to go on record as having played a leading role in establishing the OECD Model TIEA standard, a lead role that many of our competitors cannot claim."

Bermuda had one of the world's oldest tax information exchange agreements with the US, dating back more than 20 years, she said, and had been one of the first countries to proactively seek TIEAs with OECD and EU countries.

"This is the result of diligent work on the part of the Ministry to engage in negotiations with OECD and EU members from the time we signed our commitment to the OECD in the year 2000," Ms Cox said. "We are no 'Johnny come lately' to this process."