Financial companies will also be required to identify the ultimate beneficiaries of shell companies, trusts and similar legal arrangements that at present can be used to evade taxes.

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Although the signatories did not officially commit to a specific deadline, a group of early adopters is aiming to have exchange of information up and running by 2017 using tax data collected from the end of 2015.

Banks will have a year to adapt their information technology systems while governments will have to modify their tax laws, Saint-Amans said.

Foot-draggers will be spared formal sanctions, but compliance will be monitored through international peer reviews similar to existing arrangements for the exchange of tax information on request.

The shift to an international standard on automatic sharing of information has been accelerated by the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) which forces banks outside the United States to give Washington details of foreign accounts held by US citizens.

A US Treasury Department spokeswoman said on Monday that Singapore had reached a tax information-sharing agreement with the United States, set to take effect on July 1, under a new law meant to combat offshore tax dodging by Americans.

Countries have said that once they agreed to share information with the United States, other large countries pressured them for a similar deal.

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