Austria has bank secrecy laws on a par with those of Switzerland and yet the former country’s finance minister has sharply rebuffed criticisms from European Union policymakers, media reports said. Austria is a member of the EU – unlike Switzerland.

Maria Fekter said the EU cannot force Austria to open up its banking secrecy laws without forcing the UK to crack down on its own “tax haven”. According to one Bloomberg report, the minister has said the UK is a home for “money laundering parasites”.

The undiplomatic language is a sign of how some jurisdictions, facing relentless pressure on their banking regimes from countries angry about alleged tax evasion, have decided to fight back.

While it does not normally attract the same degree of international scrutiny as neighbouring Switzerland, Austria is home to a number of banks that benefit from tight rules on bank secrecy. (To read a profile of the country and its legal system, click here).

Fekter is a member of Austria's governing coalition.

"We want a trust registry for the Channel Islands, but also for countries where British law applies such as the Cayman Islands, Virgin Islands or Gibraltar," she told Austria's Kurier newspaper. "These are all areas that are havens for tax refugees," she is reported to have said. In another interview with the country’s Die Presse, she said the UK should be forced to ban anonymous directorships of companies and trusts.

"What we demand of Cyprus, a small island, we also demand of the UK," she said, referring to the EU's ban of anonymous directorships in Cyprus as a condition of the island's bailout.

Fekter hit out at the US for its own “tax havens”. "Delaware and Nevada are tax havens and money-laundering havens that have to be laid bare," she said.