PARIS, April 10 (Xinhua) -- France, along with four other European countries, have envisaged creating a multinational system of information to fight tax evasion, the French Economy and Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

　　"Pierre Moscovici, Minister of Economy and Finance, has addressed on Tuesday (April 9) with its counterparts from Britain, Germany, Spain and Italy, a letter to European Commissioner for Taxation, Algirdas Semeta, expressing their joint request to establish a multilateral system of exchange of information" in the banking sector, the ministry said in a statement.

　　The five European countries decided to build the system on the U.S. model of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), which is designed to improve tax compliance involving foreign financial assets and offshore accounts through exchanges of information between foreign financial institutions and U.S. Treasury Department.

　　Economy Minister Moscovici and Budget Minister Bernard Cazeneuve pushed for an automatic exchange of information in the hope of ending banking secrecy and concealment of assets, the statement added.

　　The initiative came as the French government was shaken last week by a tax evasion scandal of former French budget minister Jerome Cahuzac, who admitted having held bank accounts in Switzerland and had it transferred later to Singapore.

　　Earlier, a collaborative inquiry revealed offshore companies and their wealthy clients, including Jean-Jacques Augier, former campaign treasurer of President Francois Hollande in 2012, as a shareholder of two companies in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven.