Singapore to sign tax deal with France, to meet OECD standard

SINGAPORE, Nov 11 (Reuters) - France said on Wednesday it will sign a new double taxation treaty with Singapore on Friday, which means the city-state will be removed from a "grey list" of countries that have not implemented international standards on exchange of information.

The deal will mark the 12th agreement Singapore has signed that features the new internationally agreed standard for the exchange of information upon request to chase tax evaders, the number of treaties required to be removed from the OECD list.

The G20 group of leading industrialised and emerging market nations agreed in April to crack down on countries that failed to help in cross-border tax evasion cases.

At the time, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) published a "grey list" of more than 30 countries that had agreed to improve transparency but had not signed the necessary international accords, of which Singapore was one.

Singapore endorsed the OECD standard for the exchange of information for tax purposes in March and has been renegotiating existing agreements with various countries since then.

It has also signed new agreements with Mexico, Qatar, Norway, Austria, Australia, the Netherlands, UK, Denmark, New Zealand, Belgium and Bahrain.

Singapore has strict bank secrecy laws and has been promoting itself as a rival financial centre to Hong Kong to attract banks such as UBS (UBSN.VX), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) and Citigroup (C.N) to manage money for rich local and foreign clients. (Reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)