Austria banks scrap privacy of foreigner bank accounts

Austria's Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance Michael Spindelegger said Monday his government decided to scrap the privacy of bank accounts of foreigners by 2017 in keeping with a similar decision by the European Union.Austria and Luxemburg are the last two EU countries to adopt the measure in a bid to combat money laundering and tax evasion.Spindelegger will inform his peers in the EU, when they meet in Brussels on Tuesday, of the new measures in the framework of information sharing, Austria Press Agency (APA) reported.He said there will be automatic information sharing on the bank accounts of non-Austrians while the privacy of an Austrian's bank account can be lifted only through a judiciary order.