Twelve Swiss banks and one fiduciary firm have been formally notified by the Swiss government that the U.S. is expecting them to provide data on certain of their American account-holders, as required by FATCA.

Two of the Netherlands' largest banks, ABN AMRO and Rabobank, are also prepared to close the bank accounts of "unintentional Americans" if these individuals "do not cooperate with the U.S. requirements" that they provide tax information numbers, such as a Social Security number, or evidence that they have entered into the U.S. system for relinquishing their citizenships, according to a report published on Friday on the news website NRC.nl.

 A proposed amendment to France's 2021 Finance Bill, which would have obliged the U.S. to reciprocate with respect to the information it currently receives from France under FATCA, has been declared "inadmissible" by the chairman of the French Senate's finance committee, and thus will not be included in the final draft of the legislation, it was announced over the weekend.

Less than two weeks after the sponsors of a proposed amendment to France's 2021 Finance Bill that would have obliged the U.S. to reciprocate with respect to the information it currently receives from France under FATCA withdrew it from consideration at the last minute, three members of the French Legislature's upper house have tabled a similar amendment.

Dutch lawmakers said on Tuesday that they plan to join forces with their French counterparts in asking the EU Commission to once again raise with the U.S. the issue of the problems some of their citizens are having with their financial accounts, as a result of the U.S. tax evasion-prevention law known as FATCA.

It was probably wishful thinking on the part of American expats and "accidental Americans" across Europe that France's National Assembly two weeks ago actually would have approved a proposal that would have seen France stand up to the U.S. government over its anti-tax evasion law known as FATCA...

A planned amendment to a bill currently making its way through France's legislature that would have mandated a change in an existing FATCA "intergovernmental agreement" currently in place between France and the U.S. – which would have obliged the U.S. to provide the same information to France about its citizens' U.S. bank accounts that France forwards to the U.S. about French accounts held by American citizens – was withdrawn at the last minute on Friday. 

France's National Assembly is set to meet tomorrow to discuss a plan calling for a change to an existing "intergovernmental agreement" currently in place between France and the U.S.  – introduced to enable French financial institutions to comply with the U.S. anti-tax evasion law known as FATCA – that would oblige the U.S. to begin delivering on the "reciprocity" of information exchange that certain French lawmakers say their government understood to have been part of the IGA deal at the time it was agreed to by both parties in 2013. 

A series of speakers, including four members of the European Parliament, on Tuesday slammed what they said was the European Commission's continued failure to take serious action aimed at addressing the banking and tax problems that thousands of American/EU dual nationals have been struggling with for years – problems that they said are expected to get worse if nothing is done.

A "Working Paper" issued by the European Council on Sept. 11, four days before the European Data Protection Board was due to meet to discuss how the EU should best prepare to participate in the worldwide move towards ever-greater automatic exchange of information, is being seen by some observers as an indication of the willingness of EU governments to take measures behind the scenes aimed at quietly ensuring a consistent pan-EU data protection message that also fits in with their "Realpolitik" objectives – including avoiding a public, political showdown with the U.S. over FATCA.