Four more UK banks with an offshore presence outside mainland Great Britain ? including Bank of Bermuda parent company HSBC ? have found themselves caught in the expanding net of EU tax inspections.

EU citizens who have money in the banks, which have previously been out of reach of taxation from the country where they are resident, will now find their banking details being handed over for inspection by Britain?s HM Revenue and Customs.

It is estimated that 100,000 customers will be affected and unpaid taxes of ?275 million ($540 million) recovered.

The four banks now obligated to hand details to the revenue officials, following a court case in the UK, are HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB. Last year another British bank, Barclays, was also ordered to reveal details of accounts held in the Channel Islands of customers resident with EU countries.

The action has been made possible by the EU Savings Tax Directive, which came into force in July 2005 to give uniform information exchange between EU countries. Effectively, countries report interest on savings paid to citizens of other EU countries to home authorities of the resident in question.

Offshore banking centres such as the Channel Islands, Isle of Man and a number of affiliated countries and jurisdictions, including Caribbean island dependencies of the UK and Holland are also part of the continent?s tax directive. However, Bermuda was missed out, apparently due to an administrative error during the drafting of the EU directive and currently remains outside the regulations.

This latest development is being watched by the Finance Ministry. At the moment there is no indication that it will affect Bermuda bank accounts held by residents of EU states.

Last night Bank of Bermuda was checking to see if there would be any implications to its operation following the UK court case and the involvement of HSBC as one of the latest four banks to be ordered to make banking details in the Channel Islands available to British revenue and customs department.

Ministry of Finance secretary Donald Scott told the : ?The Ministry of Finance is monitoring developments in the case recently won by HM Revenue and Customs and defers any comment on the outcome or its implications at this time.

?The Government of Bermuda is engaged in formal discussions with Her Majesty?s Treasury regarding the EU Directive on the Taxation of Savings Income. The discussions have proceeded amicably and include a dialogue about economic and commercial benefits that might accrue to Bermuda in the event that Government adopts similar mechanisms for the exchange of relevant tax information with EU member states.?

A report in the British newspaper the Financial Times stated that HM Revenue and Customs would be looking for evidence of UK-domiciled individuals who have not declared the interest and other income they may be receiving from bank accounts held in the Channel Islands. It is illegal to conceal such income from tax collectors, although having an offshore account is not a crime.

Secret bank accounts in other countries, such as Switzerland and other offshore jurisdictions, appear to be unaffected by the latest ruling.

Currently details of bank accounts held in Bermuda are not readily available to overseas government agencies to inspect, although Bermuda, like the US, will supply information if presented with a good case that criminal activity has taken place.

How much money the UK might recover in unpaid tax from uncovering the bank accounts remains to be seen. Commentators have noted that the expected $540 million mentioned is much lower than the $3 billion mentioned when a similar ruling was made against British bank Barclays in 2006, indicating that speculative figure may have been very wide of the mark.