Assessing the coverage of the automatic exchange of information under the CRS

The introduction of the automatic exchange of bank information under the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) marked a breakthrough in the fight against global financial secrecy. In this report, we evaluate the scope and coverage of the CRS—in a context marked by limited evidence, primarily due to restricted access to CRS data. For this purpose, we have compiled newly aggregated CRS data from 16 countries, covering roughly 30% of the global amount reported by the OECD for the year 2022. Our analysis reveals that the volume of data exchanged internationally has increased and improved substantially over recent years and that CRS-reported foreign wealth accounts for approximately 9% of household financial wealth. Moreover, the data highlights considerably higher average financial holdings in financial centers compared to other jurisdictions. At the same time, a relatively higher share of wealth in financial centers is held through passive corporate structures, indicating the CRS covers the sort of high-risk holdings for which it was designed. The household wealth held in financial centers reported under the CRS is at least 30 percent lower than previous EU Tax Observatory estimates of household offshore financial wealth which could be interpreted as an indication of underreporting. To fully leverage the CRS’s potential efforts to improve data quality and processing should continue. Greater transparency on the part of governments regarding the progress achieved, including public CRS statistics, would promote an informed public debate about international tax evasion and capital flight.