Bermuda’s Ministry of Finance has signed two more Tax Information Exchange Agreements (TIEA) — one in South America, the other with one of the Island’s offshore business rivals.Bermuda signed agreements with the Republic of Brazil and the Republic of Singapore — bringing the total munber of TIEAs to 38.Sixteen of the TIEAs are with G20 member countries. Bermuda’s agreement with the Italian Republic in April completed the quest of signing TIEAs with all G7 countries.Both signings took place in London.According to the Ministry of Finance, the Singapore TIEA is significant as it solidifies Bermuda’s relationship within the Asian South Eastern Pacific region and allows for greater diversification of Bermuda’s international business sector.Signing on behalf of Premier Paula Cox, was Assistant Financial Secretary of Treaties, Wayne Brown.“The signing of this Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) allows Bermuda to utilise this opportunity to officially recognise our partnership within the International Business community and publicly demonstrate our shared commitment to implementing the Global Forum on Exchange Information for Tax Purposes’ internationally agreed tax standard, exchange of information by request, of which Bermuda is one of the vice chairs,” Mr Brown said.The president and executive director of the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers (ABIR) Brad Kading, said: “Singapore is the new hub for building our Asian market insurance operations and as such it is very important to have co-operative measures in place between our two governments. Asia includes the biggest growth economies for the 21st century. Nine ABIR members have operations in Singapore today and more are intent on investigating market opportunities. Regulatory and tax cooperation agreements should be mutually beneficial to the jurisdictions and ABIR members alike.”Mr Brown said the signing of the tax agreement with Brazil, the largest economy in South America and one of only two G20 countries in South America, was a major development.“The TIEA also underpins the current economic relationship enjoyed by both countries as there are many entities with Bermuda that currently have business relationships in Brazil and encourages more business investment from Brazil going forward,” he said.Mr Kading applauded the agreement with Brazil. “Five ABIR members have licensed Brazilian insurers in operation today. More do business with representative offices and others do business on a cross border basis.“ABIR members offer great capacity to meet the needs of Brazil’s burgeoning economy and have expertise in special insurance markets such as energy which are critical to Brazil’s future.”