It is nearly a year since tax authorities around the world sent their first sets of Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) reports to the US Internal Revenue Service. These were compiled by financial institutions under the terms of applicable inter-governmental agreements (IGAs) in their respective jurisdictions.

Now those same financial institutions are starting to prepare for the common reporting standard (CRS) which, for the 55 early adopter jurisdictions, was introduced with effect from 1 January 2016.