The Office of the Revenue Commissioners has said that legislation establishing the new single financial regulator should provide for an exchange of information with the Revenue if there are signs of tax evasion by a financial institution or its customers.

It made the request in its submission to the McDowell Group on the establishment of a single regulatory authority, according to a report in the latest edition of Finance magazine.

The report also says that there were divisions between government departments, not only on the role of the central bank but on the extent of State funding for the regulator.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment proposed that the full £14 million cost of the new regulator would be borne by industry, while the Department of Finance envisaged that Central Bank surpluses would contribute to the cost. The McDowell report eventually sided with the view of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.