Bermuda was scheduled to sign its 13th tax information exchange agreement (TIEA) with Germany at the Germany Embassy in London today.

The bilateral agreement, which was due to be signed by Finance Minister Paula Cox and German Ambassador Georg Boomgaarden, will provide for a full exchange of information on criminal and civil tax matters between the two countries and concludes years of preparatory work and negotiations held in 2008.

Bermuda has also concluded negotiations on three further TIEAs.

"Today, Bermuda having signed 13 of its 16 concluded TIEA negotiations, has put clear water between Bermuda and those jurisdictions which only just made the international standard," she said.

"It sends a signal to the G20 and OECD that Bermuda, as a white listed jurisdiction, is committed to the OECD initiative and intends to exceed by the widest of margins the minimum standard of 12 TIEAs." The Island moved from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) 'grey list' to the 'white list' in early June after signing its 12th TIEA with the Netherlands, having already signed agreements with the US, the UK, Australia, New Zealand and the seven member Nordic Group, and concluded negotiations with Mexico and Canada.

Ms Cox said that Bermuda plans to conclude TIEAs with all of the G7 countries and other important international trading and commercial partners.

"With today's signing, we have taken a big step closer to our goal," she said. "We have underlined, yet again, our commitment to supporting the OECD initiative to implement standards of information exchange and transparency and we shall continue to work assiduously to strengthen worldwide tax co-operation."