MADRID (MNI) – European policymakers in a meeting here Saturday
discussed taxing the region’s banks and using the money to create
national buffers for future financial crises, though they didn’t commit
to specific policies.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet told reporters
after the meeting that the ideas, proposed by the European Commission,
are a “work in progress.”
Elena Salgado, Spain’s finance minister and chair of the Madrid
meeting said, “no decision has been made. “We will have to keep talking
about types of crisis resolution instruments.”
Finance ministers from the Group of 20 economies will attend a
series of meetings April 24-25 in Washington, D.C., where they will
discuss the issue in more detail, ahead of a G20 leaders’ meeting in
June.
But there’s disagreement about whether Europe should press ahead
with its own plans for a bank levy or wait until a global agreement is
thrashed out.
“We need proper sequencing…which will ensure that we have a
financial sector that is resilient,” Trichet told reporters at a press
conference in Madrid on Saturday.
He said Europeans must make sure their financial regulation reform
is in line with the work already underway at the Basel Committee, the
Financial Stability Board, and the G20.
He said it was important to “organize the transition, not to hamper
the recovery, which is ongoing.”
The “absence of level playing field would be very damaging,”
Trichet said.
“We looked at all the array of issues… for financial stability,
and it’s a work in progress,” the ECB president said.
France and Germany are pushing for a tax on banks and other
financial institutions, saying they want to protect their taxpayers, who
have had to fund the bailout of many of Europe’s banks.
–Madrid: 0032 487 (0) 32 803 665, echarlton@marketnews.com
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