AS recent comments by Liberal Democrat spokesman Vince Cable illustrated, too many influential people are still willing to assert that the Channel Islands are unprincipled tax havens where secrecy rules, financial information is closely guarded and dark deeds are therefore possible.

That this is a misrepresentation of how the islands do business should be evident to anyone who has taken the trouble to look at the facts. For example, praise for the quality of the Jersey regulatory regime has come from many quarters, including the Financial Action Task Force, the international body which combats money laundering.

And last week further evidence of the high esteem in which the Channel Islands’ finance industries are held by the international community emerged. Chief Minister Frank Walker and his Guernsey counterpart, Lyndon Trott, signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement with seven Nordic nations – Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Greenland, the Faroes, Iceland and Finland. This agreement complements others with the Netherlands and the USA which are already in place.

In practical terms, the agreements mean that signatories agree to provide information – if requested – on money laundering, terrorist funding, tax evasion and all other forms of financial crime. In addition, however, they amount to powerful endorsements of the strength of the islands’ international standing among those in the know.

Moreover, from the point of view of the man in the street and business, they also simplify issues related to double taxation and the distribution of profits.

It was, meanwhile, significant that Jeffrey Owens, the head of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, who attended last week’s signing ceremony, held in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, chose to comment fav-ourably on Jersey’s strategies.

It is also significant that Mr Owens made it clear that he believes in the level playing field in tax disclosure matters that this Island’s authorities have long championed. Until all jurisdictions demonstrate the commitment shown by Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man in this vital area, those continuing to play their cards too close to their chests will continue to undermine and damage the general reputation of the global offshore finance sector.