G-20 Fails on Bank Tax, Calls for Joint 'Principles'
As reported in Bloomberg Businessweek, on June 5, 2010, the G-20 finance ministers failed to agree on a proposal to impose a global tax on banks, settling instead for a common set of guidelines. G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors said in a statement in Busan, South Korea, that governments will take account of each nation’s “circumstances and options.” The result allows nations such as Canada, China and Brazil, whose banks suffered less during the global financial crisis, to skip introducing a tax. European countries and the U.S. have advocated the levy. This statement by the G-20 finance ministers leaves in place an initiative to seek tighter global standards for capital levels at banks. The Ministers said they now recognized that there are a “range of policy options” open to countries and agreed instead to adopt “principles” that protect taxpayers and reduce the risks of further crises.
