AFP is reporting that all French banks have committed to closing all of their subsidiaries located in jurisdictions on the OECD grey-list. From AFP:

PARIS — All French banks will begin taking steps in March to close their branches and subsidiaries in countries deemed to be tax havens by the OECD, the deputy head of the French banking federation said on Thursday.

“French banks have taken the decision to commit to the closure of their subsidiaries and branches that are on the OECD grey list in March 2010,” he said after a meeting with French President Nicholas Sarkozy.

Countries on the grey list, drafted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, have taken steps to improve their banking and tax data transparency but have yet to fully meet OECD standards.

Despite my differences with the OECD standards on tax evasion (they’re pretty weak), this is still a very good thing – particularly as the private sector took the initiative here.

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