Darling unleashes 50% tax rate on bank bonuses

As feared, a tax on bank bonuses above GBP 25,000 has been included in the budget. the rate is 50%. There is no windfall profits tax on the banks themselves.

Cable is firming, despite what traders anticipated to be a negative reaction to that news. It is now at 1.6366, up from just above 1.6300 when Darling began to speak.

UK bankers fear that the City of London will be negatively impacted by the tax and firms will decamp for Switzerland and elsewhere, accelerating a trend that has been underway for the last year or more.