I have just been sent the Chancellor’s statement following the G20.

Of course there are things that I welcome: last week I said that support for the IMF was, perhaps, the most important thing that would come out of the G 20, and that was promised. I am delighted about that.

I am also delighted that he said

all important financial institutions should be regulated, including those hedge funds that are systemically important.

and that he said:

we also agreed a range of other measures on international banking supervision:

• All Credit Rating Agencies need to be regulated;
• Full transparency of off-balance sheet exposures;
• Accounting standards will need to improve;
• Regulation will cover payment and bonus policies;

And we agreed that tax havens must be opened up — and we welcomed recent .

In addition, and almost certainly in response to yesterday's articles on Barclays bank and Fridays on RBS he said:

Here at home, we expect banks to fully comply with their tax obligations.

So I can tell the House that I have asked HM Revenue and Customs to publish shortly a draft code of practice on taxation for the banking sector — so that banks will comply not just with the letter but the spirit of the law.

The fact that developing countries are not ignored is important. He said :

Mr Speaker, the World Bank currently estimates that 129 developing countries are facing financing shortfalls — many in Sub-Saharan Africa — and up to 90 million more people could fall into poverty as a result of this global crisis.

We agreed that we must minimise the impact of this crisis on developing and emerging economies — many of which, India, Indonesia, Turkey, South Africa — were represented at the G20.

That has always been at the core of my concern.

But pleased as I am, I remain worried. Of course “agreements by Switzerland, Hong Kong, Andorra and Singapore, to share tax information according to OECD guidelines” are welcome. It's also incredibly important to remind everyone that such change was unimaginable late last year. But, OECD standards are not good enough in this area. Nor do they have anything to do with regulation, and if tax information exchange agreements are used as the criteria for determining whether a state is, or not, sanctioned the issue of regulation will be entirely missed out from that most important decision. I think that's a mistake given the emphasis of so much of this statement.

Unless tax haven / secrecy jurisdiction regulation is tackled with sanctions then it will be impossible to regulate banks, credit agencies or hedge funds and the remix of any revised accounting standards will be limited because we will have no idea what goes on in these places.

I summarise my sentiment a few days ago as follows:

First, the mood music is right. Keep at it, please.

Second, let’s talk multilateral agreements — these agreements have to be offered to all who reasonably want them in a standard form. This is possible — the OECD has even considered it. This speeds the process.

Thirdly, we have to allow for automatic information exchange. The EU has recognised that this is the only way to beat evasion — which is why the EU Savings Tax Directive is on this basis. All attacks on tax havens have to be on this basis.

Fourth, we have to enforce better access to data on who owns what offshore — unless the ownership of companies and trusts (and by ownership I mean the names of the real warm bodies that beneficially control them) is on public record we are going to see a trickle of data, at best, forever.

Finally, we have to change corporate reporting so that companies must publish data on a country by country basis if we are to tackle tax avoidance. Only that can give us the data we need for this purpose.

I stand by that. This is a programme that can deliver real change. It's why I want it. It is what people will demand when they realise that anything less will not reform banking, will not deliver the stolen tax revenues that tax havens deliberately facilitate, and will leave us all exposed a massive risk of further financial failure.