Law360, New York (February 23, 2017, 12:29 PM EST) -- On Jan. 1, 2016, the Common Reporting Standard issued by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development entered into effect in certain key jurisdictions. These jurisdictions are often used to establish private equity funds and their affiliated vehicles, and the implementation of CRS marks a significant step toward a global system of automatic exchange of information. The CRS regime is similar to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act regime in the sense that it requires participating jurisdictions to annually exchange with other participating jurisdictions certain information obtained from financial institutions, which includes, inter alia, private equity funds located in such jurisdictions and that either have cross-border investor relationships or participate in cross-border portfolio investments or financial transactions. The CRS regime borrows heavily from the substantive rules set forth in the intergovernmental agreements (IGAs) entered into between the United States and other jurisdictions under the FATCA regime, although it is intended to implement information-sharing on a global basis. Private equity managers that seek to comply with the CRS regime should be able to find synergies within their existing investor diligence procedures that are designed to be compliant with FATCA. Since the CRS is ultimately governed by the local laws and procedures in each participating jurisdiction, this article is intended solely to provide a brief introduction to CRS and to compare it with the FATCA regime....