The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s effort to combat offshore tax evasion, known as the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), has created a significant compliance challenge for Financial Institutions (FIs) around the world. In an effort to shed light on the extent and impact of the CRS on bank, asset management, and insurance professionals working to bring their organizations into compliance, KPMG LLP (KPMG) conducted a follow-up survey of global tax and compliance professionals from the financial
services industry.

This survey report summarizes the findings of 146 high-level tax and compliance professionals—their views and insights into what their organizations are doing to comply with the CRS regulations.

The objectives of the 2016 survey included, but were not limited to:

• Better understand how financial services organizations are
  preparing for and dealing with the CRS requirements:
  • Awareness within the organization
  • Impact on areas of the organization/resources and customer relationships
  • Compliance challenges
  • Implementation status
• Benchmark respondents against the aggregate as well as compliance and tax organizational groups, where applicable.

Around the world, CRS regulations have had a profound impact on FIs. FIs are faced with significant additional identification and reporting responsibilities, which may vary in detail and timing by jurisdiction. Crucially, FIs need to be able to collect and track complex, varied customer information in each jurisdiction where they operate, with heavy reputational and financial risks for lack of compliance.

Key findings from the 2016 CRS Survey:

• FIs are still in implementation mode—40 percent have either taken only preliminary steps or are just beginning to focus.
• Only 64 percent said they met the January 1, 2016 deadline for onboarding in early adopter jurisdictions.
• Yet, 60 percent are already collecting information for new accounts in jurisdictions that have committed to implement the CRS effective from January 1, 2017.
• Inquiries from investors and customers regarding the CRS are u sharply as compared with 2015. 
• Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, 97 percent will not/do not plan to terminate any customer relationships to reduce CRS compliance obligations.
  

This survey report summarizes the findings of 146 high-level tax and compliance professionals—their views and insights into what their organizations are doing to comply with the CRS regulations.