Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has praised the striking of an Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) agreement to automatically share tax information on individuals by the year 2018. “Tax evasion can only be tackled with a global solution,” he told journalists at the OECD Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes meeting in Berlin, Germany.

He praised the fact that UK crown dependencies such as Jersey and Guernsey, and overseas territories including the Cayman Islands, had been full involved in the process.

“It’s remarkable how much progress has been made in a short period of time, in a field that usually takes decades,” said Osborne. “This will reduce the places that tax evaders can hide their money tax evasion is not just illegal, it’s immoral.”

Noting that many countries are still yet to join the forum, made from 123 member states, Osborne said: “I call on the last remaining financial centres to match our commitment and hold themselves to the same high standards that we’re committing ourselves to.” He argued that the developing world would benefit from a “truly global standard of tax transparency”.