Bermuda's Finance Minister Paula Cox signed the Island's 14th Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Ireland yesterday.

The ceremony took place with Ireland's Minister of Finance Brian Lenihan signing for his country at the Department of Finance in Dublin to set up a bilateral agreement that provides for a full exchange of information on criminal and civil tax matters between the two countries.

Also in attendance were Bermuda's Financial Secretary Donald Scott and Kimberley Durrant, who heads Bermuda's London office.

Following the signing, Minister Cox said she was delighted to be in Dublin for the signing and thanked Minister Lenihan for making every effort to sign the agreement so quickly especially given the importance that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) attaches to the number of TIEAs signed by each country.

"This marks Bermuda's 14th signed TIEA and demonstrates, once again, that we are far from complacent about our current standing on the OECD white list, nor about reaching the internationally agreed standard of 12 signed TIEAs set at the April 2 meeting of the G20, or the original OECD standard of 12 signed TIEAs with members of the OECD which we undertook to complete prior to the 2009 Global Forum scheduled to meet in Mexico on September 1, 2009.

"I am extremely pleased to note that prior to this important forum, Bermuda has met both versions of the OECD standard.

"Now Bermuda may claim another first - we are the first of the British Overseas Territories to join the three Channel Islands - our constitutional cousins - in having met the G20 standard as well as the original OECD standard."