Austria is ready to discuss exchanging more data in an effort to tackle international tax evasion, but banking secrecy will remain in place, the chancellor said Monday following sharp EU criticism.
Austria was “ready for talks on a more intensive exchange of information on international investors,” Werner Faymann told the Kleine Zeitung daily in an interview to be published Tuesday.
In a separate interview with Kurier, Faymann said that although “the reputation of the country is at stake,” banking secrecy would not be affected in the small and wealthy EU and eurozone member.
“It would be absurd if a grandmother had to show (Finance Minister Maria) Fekter her savings account. This has nothing to do with international tax evasion,” he said.
He added in the Kleine Zeitung that he wanted to press Germany “to have a serious word” with British Prime Minister David Cameron about the Channel Islands.
He also took a swipe at Germany’s Deutsche Bank for its large operations in the British crown dependency and offshore banking centre.
The comments came after a spokesman for EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta called it “unacceptable” that Austria was refusing to sign up to an EU-wide push towards an automatic sharing of information on bank account holders.