The European Savings Directive To try to stop people hiding money from the tax authorities the European Union introduced the European Savings Directive(ESD). Basically, banks in Eu countries collect the tax due on bank accounts held by citizens of other EU countries. So you can't be an lrish person with a Dutch bank account and hope the Irish tax authorities won't find out about it or collect the tax owed. The ESD made it much more difficult to hide your money in Europe. It is interesting because when the ESD was being discussed and introduced there was a sudden increase in people who wanted to open bank accounts outside Europe, hence the surge of interest in places like Panama and the British Virgin Islands.