They didn't wait

The governments of Great Britain, France and Germany announce a coordinated decision to introduce a tax on banks. This was announced yesterday by British Finance Minister George Osborne (pictured) , presenting the country's new budget in parliament. Thus, the UK has been introducing a tax on the balance sheet assets of British and foreign banks since January 2011. The minister did not disclose the exact tax rates, but outlined which assets would be subject to the new tax, noting that the tax regime would be more liberal for small banks. In particular, Tier 1 capital and insured retail deposits will not be subject to the tax. Meanwhile, after the end of the budget message, the Treasury issued a more detailed press release, which indicates that in 2011 the tax rate will be 0.04%, and in subsequent years - 0.07%. For assets with long maturities, the tax rate will be half as low.

According to the British government, the new tax will bring up to 2 billion pounds into the British treasury annually. “We must remember that the crisis began in the banking sector. The problems of banks resulted in huge losses for the entire society. Therefore, I believe that it will be right to charge banks in the future an appropriate fee that reflects the risks that they generate,” Mr. n Osborne. He added that a similar approach was recommended by the International Monetary Fund and discussed within the G20. "There were those who insisted that we should wait until every G20 country introduced a tax on banks. I think that is neither practical nor fair," the British minister said. Attached to Mr Osborne's Budget message was a joint announcement from the UK, French and German governments on a coordinated bank tax to be announced by the three countries this summer. They will discuss this step with their G20 partners at the upcoming G20 leaders' summit in Toronto, Canada. RIA Novosti