Austria vows to keep banking secrecy laws

Austria will keep its banking secrecy laws and resist pressure from European leaders to reveal information about account holders, Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter said as European leaders gathered in Dublin this morning.

The move comes as Luxembourg agreed to share details about its European depositors by 2015 earlier this week.

Ms Fekter said "Austria is sticking to bank secrecy. We fight tax evasion and money laundering.

“Automatic exchange of information involves a massive interference in people's privacy rights. Here the state sniffs around deep into the private affairs of account holders."

Ms Fekter also hit out at the UK and the US, urging them to crack down on money laundering and tax havens in their own jurisdictions.

"Great Britain has many money laundering centres and tax havens in its immediate legal remit - the Channel Islands Gibraltar, the Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands. These are all hot spots for tax evasion and money laundering", she added.

Cyprus has also accepted transparency rules which ban anonymous trusts, however Ms Fekter insisted that the rules "cannot be a one-way street" and must be adopted by all members states.

Ms Fekter added that it’s “not obviously necessary” to agree to EU terms as the country can comply with data exchange based on Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development standards.