Geneva  - Switzerland was set Friday to be removed from the list of international tax havens, after signing the required 12th new bilateral double taxation agreement.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had placed the country on a "grey list" of countries with banking secrecy who pledged reforms which would enable better international cooperation on tax affairs and help fight tax offences.

The OECD requires that those on the grey-list sign 12 such treaties on tax cooperation before they can be removed.

Switzerland signed its 12 deal with Qatar late Thursday. It has also signed new deals with Denmark, Luxembourg, France, Norway, Austria, Britain, Mexico, Finland, the Faroe Islands and the United States. The agreement with Spain is also considered to have been signed as the countries have a most favoured nation clause.

In the weeks leading up the previous Group of 20 (G20) meeting, pressure from several key countries, including France, Germany and the United States mounted against so called tax havens, particularly in light of the global economic crisis.

Swiss banks and funds are estimated to hold over a quarter of all offshore private wealth accounts.

Switzerland's Federal Council on March 13 decided that it would adopt the OECD standard in international administrative assistance in tax matters and would "extend the exchange of information in individual cases to specific and justified requests with other countries."

Angel Guerria, head of the OECD, has cautioned that signing the agreement was only one step in the process and he was also looking for "effective implementation."

The government says that banking secrecy would be maintained.

"The privacy of domestic and foreign bank clients (banking secrecy) in terms of unjustified intrusion by the state remains intact," the Federal Department of Finance said in a statement.

"However, banking secrecy offers no protection in the case of tax offences. As a result of the globalisation of financial markets and particularly against the backdrop of the financial crisis, international cooperation in the area of taxes has grown in importance," the statement, released upon completion of the 12th deal, said.

The agreements might still be subjected to a public referendum under Switzerland's policy of "direct democracy."

Switzerland this year has also ordered its largest bank, UBS AG, to hand over data on nearly 5,000 clients to the United States authorities, after the financial institution admitted in 2008 that some of its employees helped clients evade paying their dues to the taxman. (dpa)