The Common Reporting Standard (CRS) is an effort led by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and aims to combat tax evasion by imposing mutual reporting obligations among participating countries. A large number of countries have signed the Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Information, Cyprus being one of them. Practically speaking, reportable entities in one jurisdiction will need to identify and report foreign individuals and entities accounts holders, provided that the country where account holder has his tax residence participates in CRS.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) is focused on strengthening information reporting and withholding compliance with respect to US persons who invest directly or indirectly through the ownership of foreign interests. To achieve its purposes, FATCA dictates non-US Financial Institutions to identify accounts falling under the FATCA scope and report certain details on these accounts to the US Authorities.