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You are here: Home News Belgian News Europe urges 'social' tax on banks worldwide

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12/12/2009Europe urges 'social' tax on banks worldwide

The idea is among proposals being considered to ensure that trillions of dollars of taxpayers' support during last year's financial crisis is repaid with a slice of boom-time profits.

Brussels -- Europe on Friday backed Anglo-French moves to introduce a "social" tax on banks, insurers and markets, but Germany resisted calls for a levy on bankers' past bonuses as well.

European Union leaders endorsed a fresh call by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, supported by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, for the International Monetary Fund to examine a global so-called 'Tobin' tax.

The idea is among proposals they want considered to ensure that trillions of dollars of taxpayers' support during last year's financial crisis is repaid with a slice of boom-time profits.

The 27 EU member states agreed, after a two-day summit in Brussels, that an "economic and social contract" needs renewing "between financial institutions and the society they serve ... ensuring that the public benefits in good times and is protected from risk."

In joint summit conclusions they urged "the IMF to consider the full range of options including insurance fees, resolution funds, contingent capital arrangements and a global financial transaction levy in its (ongoing) review."

But while Germany endorsed those aims, Chancellor Angela Merkel said her country's constitution prevented her from copying action in London and Paris to impose one-off taxes on bankers' bonuses earned this year.

Merkel said she had no choice but to rule out the otherwise "seductive" idea, warning that she could not "ride roughshod over the constitution," instead favouring "guarantees to prevent taxpayers once more being asked to dip into their pockets when banks are going through a crisis."

She added: "That's where a cross-border financial transaction tax comes in."

New German legislation covering bonuses is due next year, although eight German banks have said they will voluntarily apply interim standards based on Group of 20 guidelines for "sustainable remuneration."

While the EU's language on taxing financial transactions erred on the side of caution, the inclusion of the idea -- kicking about since the 1970s -- represents an alignment between Europe's three core powers.

Merkel had already sought support from fellow EU leaders in September, although her EU partners were unwilling to back her then.

But Brown, who trails in polls ahead of a general election next year, now sees an "urgent need" for a new deal between banks and society.

"I think many bankers are willing to support (this), because they know there is something not right about this relationship," he underlined.

Sarkozy said that "conditions are ripe," for the move.

"The mood has moved on and once again, our two countries are at the forefront of that change," insisted the French president, who held a joint press conference with Brown in a display of cross-Channel unity.

Nobel laureate James Tobin first proposed his levy as a means of reducing speculation in global markets.

However, the Robin Hood-style idea has received no encouragement from the United States, whose Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said curtly: "No, that's not something that we're prepared to support."

The G20 group of nations has already asked the IMF to study the feasibility of such a measure, but the latter's head, Frenchman Dominique Strauss-Kahn, warned that it would be "very difficult" to implement, "in fact it is impossible."

Due to give its report next April, the IMF sees a "better" solution -- a tax that would "curb risk-taking in the financial sector" and make bankers "take fewer risks because it will cost them more, while at the same time creating a reserve fund which could be used in a crisis."

Roddy Thomson/AFP/Expatica         


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