Prime Minister Gordon Brown leaves the stage after holding a news conference at the end of the G20 Summit in London.

BUSINESS leaders rejoiced yesterday after learning the island had been put on a white list of cooperative financial centres.

Chamber of Commerce chairman Paul Luxon said it was fantastic news that the island had been recognised for its cooperation.

‘As the business community has said all along, Guernsey is a credible international finance centre,’ he said.

‘We are fully compliant, fully transparent, cooperative and extremely well regulated.

‘The work that has been done in the last three months to get us up to 13 agreements has obviously stood us in good stead. It is a credit to the Policy Council and the chief minister.’

Mr Luxon said the talk of ‘tax haven’ when referring to Guernsey would now hopefully stop.

‘Guernsey businesses have known the island is not a tax haven but the external view is important,’ he said.
‘If the external view now changes as a result of this announcement then that is a significant forward step.’

• A PDF of the OECD ‘black, grey and white list’ is available from the OECD website.