Almost a decade of work by government to ensure the Isle of Man is seen as a responsible offshore jurisdiction has paid off.

At the end of the G20 summit in London, it was confirmed last night the Island has avoided being named on the OECD tax haven 'blacklist'.

And the news was even better than expected, as the Isle of Man appears to be on a 'whitelist' confirming it is committed to banking transparency and exchanging tax information with the rest of the world.

It came as a huge relief for ministers who faced a tense wait throughout the day for the news.

Treasury minister Allan Bell says the Island's reputation is set to prosper.

He told Manx Radio:

"It will separate us from the overseas territories and many of the European countries which are deemed to be tax havens.

"This is exactly what Treasury has been trying to achieve in all our negotiations over the years, that there needs to be a genuine differentiation between those countries which are well regulated and those that aren't.

"And I think if we can show that not only the Isle of Man but the Crown dependencies generally are responsible, then I think, once again, that will take the spotlight away from us for quite some time."

Chief Minister Tony Brown says inclusion on the OECD 'whitelist' is good news for every citizen of the Isle of Man (play attached audio file):

" ...we know that financial services and the spin offs from that are important to the Isle of Man, it generates the income that we require which enables us to improve the quality of life [and] provide the services that our people need.

"So it's a very, very important day for us, but we still have to keep working at it, we still have to go forward, the world is changing, we have to be recognising that, and we have to keep moving forward and identify what changes we need to make to secure our future."

More on Friday's Mandate.