The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum) of the OECD has published five new peer review reports on transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR) for Armenia, the British Virgin Islands, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Djibouti on 18 March 2025.

The reports for Armenia and Côte d’Ivoire combined an assessment of their legal framework and the implementation of the EOIR standard in practice and concluded both jurisdictions to be “Largely Compliant” with the standard. The supplementary report analysing the progress made by the British Virgin Islands since its last full peer review was released in 2022 rated it “Partially Compliant” against the standard.

The reports for Burkina Faso and Djibouti are limited to an assessment of their legal and regulatory framework (phase 1), since these jurisdictions have limited practice of EOIR. Burkina Faso’s EOIR framework was determined to be mostly in place, and its second phase of the review process on the implementation in practice is due to take place in 2027 at the latest. In contrast, Djibouti’s legal framework contains significant gaps and legislative improvements will be required for Djibouti to progress its review to a second phase.

The new reports were approved by the Global Forum’s dedicated Peer Review and Monitoring Group in February 2025 and subsequently adopted by the Global Forum members. To date, 126 jurisdictions have been fully reviewed in the second round of EOIR peer reviews, which started in 2016, and the ratings assigned are generally positive, with 89% of the jurisdictions deemed “Compliant” or “Largely Compliant” with the standard, 9.5% assessed as “Partially Compliant”, and only 1.5% as “Non-Compliant”.

Jurisdiction-specific findings and recommendations include:

Armenia joined the Global Forum in 2015, and the Global Forum finalised its first review assessing its compliance with the EOIR standard. Armenia has a comprehensive legal and regulatory framework to ensure the availability of legal ownership and beneficial ownership information, accounting information and banking information, but its supervision should be improved. The report identifies some areas for improvement, notably the need to further disseminate guidance on how to implement the recent obligation for entities to collect and report information on their beneficial owners, and to improve the related supervision. The review acknowledges important legal reforms conducted to allow for access to banking information for exchange purposes. Today, Armenia’s competent authority access to banking information needs to be secured, considering that the procedure in place since 2022 has suffered challenges in the implementation, which led to some failures and delays in exchange of information. Armenia has a wide network of exchange relationships and organisational processes and resources in place and was able to respond to most requests received from exchange partners in a timely manner. Armenia is rated overall “Largely Compliant” with the EOIR standard.

The British Virgin Islands has taken steps towards addressing the recommendations made in its previous report published in 2022 and increasing its overall compliance with the standard. Nevertheless, there continues to be scope for improvement in the legislative framework and its implementation in practice, particularly in respect of the availability of accounting information. Some of the key legislative changes regarding the availability of accounting information are yet to be implemented, and the British Virgin Islands has not supervised, or enforced, any of the former or recent obligations related to the availability of accounting information. The British Virgin Islands also continued to experience challenges in providing complete information when requested, which led to less than effective exchange of information with partners. The progress achieved was not deemed sufficient for an upgrade of the overall rating obtained in 2022, which therefore remains “Partially Compliant” with the standard.

Burkina Faso made progress since its previous peer review in 2016, notably by expanding its treaty network with the signature and entry into force of the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters. While Burkina Faso now has 152 partners with whom to exchange information, its practice of exchange of information remains very limited. The peer review thus only analyses its legal framework at this stage (Phase 1). Burkina Faso has in place the necessary legislation on the availability of legal ownership, accounting and banking information and also introduced new requirements on beneficial ownership through its tax law and a new decree requiring legal persons and arrangements to establish a register of their beneficial owners and to report this information to the authorities. The Phase 1 report highlights the need for further improvements, particularly on the updating of beneficial ownership information for bank accounts. The implementation of the legal and regulatory framework in practice will be reviewed, and an overall rating assigned, in a Phase 2 review that will take place once Burkina Faso will have sufficiently developed its experience in exchange of information, and at the latest in 2027.

For its first review of the practice of EOIR, Côte d’Ivoire was deemed “Largely Compliant” with the standard. Côte d’Ivoire has a robust legal framework for ensuring transparency, with the availability of ownership, accounting and banking information, the access to all relevant information and the exchange of information. Nevertheless, this legal framework should be clarified on the method for identifying the beneficial owners of entities and be reinforced to ensure the update of the beneficial ownership information in all cases. Despite its robust legal framework, Côte d’Ivoire should strengthen the monitoring and supervision of the legal provisions to ensure their appropriate implementation in practice. Deficiencies have been identified in respect to a low filling rate of the annual tax return, absence of monitoring of the reporting obligation on the beneficial ownership information to the authorities, and on ensuring the availability of all the relevant information after the cessation of activities. In addition, Côte d’Ivoire should ensure that all Ivorian entities are correctly registered with the tax administration and handle the situations of inactive entities, i.e. that are repeatedly non-compliant. Côte d’Ivoire will also have to operationalise its new national beneficial ownership register. As for exchanges, Côte d’Ivoire should align some of its international relationships with the EOIR standard and ensure that they are in force. Finally, Côte d’Ivoire will have to improve its practice of the EOIR, including by documenting and formalising the EOIR process, considering that for the period reviewed, its exchanges of information exceeded the required timeframe, without always informing its partners about the status and progress of their requests.

Djibouti joined the Global Forum in 2017 and was assessed for the first time on the compliance of its legal framework with the EOIR standard. It was concluded that Djibouti lacks essential elements to effectively comply with the standard. Most importantly, its legislation does not ensure the availability of full information on the legal and beneficial owners of entities. The report takes note of recent efforts made, particularly in the adoption of the new anti-money laundering law, which provides for obligations to identify the owners and beneficial owners of legal entities and legal arrangements, retention obligations, the establishment of a national register and a register to be kept by legal persons. This framework law is not complemented by necessary detailed provisions. In terms of exchange of information, Djibouti is also lacking fundamental elements. The tax administration does not have the necessary access powers to enable it to implement an effective exchange of information. Djibouti has signed only one agreement allowing for the exchange of information, but this suffers from deficiencies that prevent an effective exchange. Djibouti should implement the recommendations made in the report to improve its legal and regulatory framework related to transparency and exchange of information. The launch of the Phase 2 review will therefore depend on the implementation of the recommendations and improvement to its legal and regulatory framework. In case no substantial progress is reported within two years, Djibouti will be automatically rated overall “Non-Compliant” with the standard.

Access all EOIR peer review reports published to date

Schedule of second round reviews

The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement the standard on transparency and exchange of information on request (EOIR) and the standards on automatic exchange of information (AEOI). These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.