The Philippines on Wednesday welcomed its removal from the OECD's blacklist of uncooperative tax havens, and vowed to bring its strict bank secrecy law in line with international standards.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development on Tuesday removed the Philippines, Costa Rica, Malaysia, and Uruguay from the list.

Instead it put them on a "grey list" of territories that had committed to internationally accepted tax standards but had not yet fully implemented them.

"We appreciate the OECD's quick action to remove us from the list of non-cooperative countries to the internationally agreed tax standards," Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said in a written statement.

"We will be working closely with congress to review existing legislation relative to bank secrecy and tax information secrecy to align our practices with OECD standards," he added.

Tax havens have come under increasing scrutiny as the global financial crisis bites ever deeper, sparking calls for radical action to curb abuses blamed for the debacle, among them tax evasion and bank secrecy.

After US and European governments bailed out a number of banks, politicians began questioning how and why some of those same financial institutions were able to continue to operate in countries that encourage tax evasion.

Transparency International France last year estimated about 10 trillion dollars were stashed in secret offshore accounts away from the prying eyes of regulators or tax inspectors.

Currently, only a court order can lift the lid on information regarding bank deposits in the Philippines.