Will the Bank Levies work or drive banks overseas?

[Infinite Chaos]

The government hopes the bill will gain parliamentary approval before being passed into law in the new year.

The levy should raise about 1bn euros ($1.3bn; £800m) a year.

The UK and France have already committed to introducing bank levies, but so far, there has been no agreement on a global tax

As Germany's Govt has approved draft proposals for a draft law imposing a levy on (domestic?)banks to pay for any future financial crisis - the risks that banks will simply up sticks and set up headquarters in another country start to rise.

Do you think a levy would work and how would you make sure it would work if you did?

Personally, I think the levy should go hand in hand with a requirement that those banks who needed / used the levy keep their HQ in the current country. If (for example) Royal Bank of Scotland chose to move from the UK in response then I would make sure they weren't allowed to operate in the UK.

Where this levy has problems is that some banks (Barclays) didn't use it - though they benefitted from the security that resources were there if needed.

 

[PeteEU]

As Germany's Govt has approved draft proposals for a draft law imposing a levy on (domestic?)banks to pay for any future financial crisis - the risks that banks will simply up sticks and set up headquarters in another country start to rise.

Do you think a levy would work and how would you make sure it would work if you did?

Personally, I think the levy should go hand in hand with a requirement that those banks who needed / used the levy keep their HQ in the current country. If (for example) Royal Bank of Scotland chose to move from the UK in response then I would make sure they weren't allowed to operate in the UK.

Where this levy has problems is that some banks (Barclays) didn't use it - though they benefitted from the security that resources were there if needed.

It wont do much. I remember the car companies complaining back in the 1980s (and some still do) when government put on mandatory emission targets and fuel efficiency. They threatened to leave.. and guess what... I remember the big telecommunications companies complaining about competition, but BT, Telefonica, France Telecom, Deutche Telecom are all still here and some could argue, bigger than ever.

The Banks know very well they were the cause of the problem, and they also know that there are 500+ million customers in Europe and they wont risk that. The price of 1 billion a year for a whole sector.. is peanuts compared to the profits made by these banks a year.