Sweden proposes EU bank tax, now on the Spanish Presidency Agenda

Obama proposed last week that Wall Street pay up to $117 billion via a special levy to reimburse taxpayers for the financial bailout, saying fat cat bankers were making massive profits and obscene bonuses.We cannot accept a situation where the bankers are running away from the bill Sweden's Anders Borg said on Tuesday at a meeting of European Union finance ministers, outlining his ideas for a bank tax or levy based on that in the U.S. and Sweden.However, while Germany, France and Britain all hailed Obama's new levy last week, they said they would press on with their own ideas.Finance ministers from the Group of 20 leading economies are due to meet in February.Asmussen said Berlin would examine the suggestion from Borg, who helped hammer out compromises on some key areas of financial reform during Sweden's recent term as European Union president.And French finance minister Christine Lagarde welcomed the Swedish proposal, which she described as interesting.Read the letter sent by Anders Borg to Mrs Elena Salgado.pdf(en anglais)