form of exchange rate peg and managed float intervene regularly so as to ensure that the respective exchange rate is consistent with the chosen regime. in conducting such interventions, they prefer to use the anchor currency which then also serves as their main reserve currency. today, roughly 50 countries use the euro as an anchor or reference currency in their exchange rate policies. while the composition of this group of countries has changed somewhat in recent years, the total number of countries has been stable. indeed, the use of the euro in third countries ’ exchange rate regimes has a strong geographical and institutional underpinning, with many of these countries being close to the euro area, including most non - euro area eu member states, or having special institutional arrangements with the european union, like the candidate countries, potential candidate countries and the countries of the cfa franc zone in west africa. overall, most of these countries are located in eastern and south - eastern europe, in the mediterranean and the middle east and sub - saharan africa. with regard to the use of the euro as a reserve currency, you are probably all aware that the relevant data are extremely difficult to obtain. what we do know is that from 1999 to 2003, global foreign exchange reserves rose by more than usd 1. 3 trillion to about usd 3 trillion. by far the largest share of this increase is attributable to reserve accumulation in a few countries in asia as well as in japan, russia and mexico. these are countries which conduct an exchange rate policy which is either de jure or de facto oriented towards the us dollar. from this development, it could be inferred that most of the reserve accumulation probably pertained to the us dollar. against this background, and bearing in mind that most countries near the euro area are small in economic and financial terms ( compared with asian and latin american countries ), it is no great surprise that the euro ’ s share in global foreign exchange reserves is still rather small, although it has risen gradually from roughly 15 % to almost 20 %. available evidence suggests that several central banks of the new eu member states, candidate and potential candidate countries intervene in foreign exchange markets mainly by using the euro as intervention currency. my final remark in this overview of the facts and figures relates to one specific international use of the euro : in certain countries neighbouring the euro area, the euro is used in parallel alongside the national currency, as a means of exchange, unit of account and store of value in people ’ s everyday transactions. in the past,

, these five countries have seen an opportunity in fatca to counter offshore tax evasion and improve international tax compliance. they have agreed to each enter into intergovernmental agreements with the united states for collecting and reporting fatca - style information to their local tax authorities. on september 14 2012, the united states and the united kingdom announced they had signed the first bilateral agreement to implement fatca. fatca and the caribbean so, ladies and gentlemen, where does this leave the caribbean? as you may be aware, tax transparency and the fight against cross - border tax evasion have been high on the agenda of successive g - 20 summits. at the g - 20 summit held in los cabos, mexico in june 2012, leaders reiterated their commitment to strengthen transparency and comprehensive exchange of tax information including through the global forum on transparency and exchange of information for tax purposes and through the multilateral convention on mutual administrative assistance. this will be mainly achieved through peer reviews of countries [UNK] compliance with internationally agreed tax standards. it is my respectful view that adopting a robust, common set of standards may be essential to fostering global financial stability. but it is neither practical nor desirable to effect a dogmatic application of these identical standards to every country or region. standards must be calibrated and adapted to local circumstances. this is particularly true in the caribbean given the limitation and vulnerabilities inherent in the relatively small size of individual economies. for some time now, caribbean countries have had to grapple with the exercise of the asymmetrical global application of power and influence when it comes to the increased regulatory scrutiny by the advanced countries of the region ’ s offshore financial centres, especially in respect of tax evasion and money laundering. to be fair, some of these caribbean jurisdictions did have loosely defined regulatory and supervisory environments, but have subsequently come a long way in strengthening their capacity. as an example, i recall 1998, when the organization for economic cooperation and development ( oecd ) produced a list of countries which it said would be “ blacklisted ” for “ harmful tax competition ”. caribbean countries, which were on that list, mounted a spirited response with the assistance of the commonwealth secretariat, forcing the oecd to relax its position in 2000. since then, the global financial crisis and a string of headline - grabbing fraud scandals like those involving disgraced wall street financier bernard madoff and texas billionaire allen stanford have focused new attention on offshore financial centers in the caribbean. however, no