Several overseas territories have agreed to help the UK government's ongoing fight to clamp down on tax evasion by sharing bank account information held in their jurisdictions.

Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands, have all agreed to share information, following a similar agreement recently signed by the Cayman Islands.

Under the agreement, much greater levels of information about bank accounts will be exchanged bilaterally with the UK and multilaterally with the "G5", which comprises the UK, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. This includes names, addresses, dates of birth, account numbers, account balances and details of payments made into those accounts. The deal also includes information about entities such as trusts.

Gibraltar, which already operates the relevant transparency directives as part of the EU, has also made the same commitments. The Isle of Man has also agreed to join and Guernsey has expressed a strong interest.

In recent months, governments throughout Europe have made a concerted effort to crack down on tax avoidance and secrecy, although controversy remains over specific tax and information-sharing pacts. There has, for example, been a long-standing dispute over a proposed deal between Germany and Switzerland, with politicians in the former party complaining that it is too lenient on people with secret accounts.

Following mounting pressure from the European Union, Luxembourg recently announced it was prepared to lift banking secrecy restrictions, and last week Austria said it was prepared to take part in talks aimed at reducing tax fraud.

The US has also been in a prolonged dispute with Switzerland regarding bank secrecy: in 2009, UBS settled civil and criminal charges for allegedly helping tax evaders. A number of Swiss banks no longer provide offshore banking to US citizens.

Last month, Austria's former finance minister, Maria Fekter, criticised the US and the UK for failing to clamp down on their own so-called tax havens. (Austria's bank secrecy laws are in many respects similar to those of its Alpine neighbour.)