Luxembourg has become the first country to be taken off a "grey list" of states - which include Switzerland - accused of a lack of financial transparency.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) bumped Luxembourg onto a "white list" of cooperative countries after the government there signed 12 double-taxation accords with other states.

The bilateral agreements are designed to facilitate the exchange of information in international tax matters.

At a G20 meeting in April, the OECD ruled that 30 countries, including Luxembourg and Switzerland, had not taken enough concrete measures to ease banking secrecy laws and were placed on the grey list. That was one step up from a black list, which would have hurt competitive advantages the countries use to attract foreign business and investment.

Switzerland hopes to be removed from the grey list this autumn. Ministers have initialed nine of the 12 double-taxation agreements required to be taken off the list. At least one of those agreements will likely go to a national vote before going into effect.

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