BOTH THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) share a common concern: an urgent need to protect against future financial failures that could further destabilise the global economy. Internal markets commissioner Michel Barnier is proposing a levy on EU banks and certain investment firms to provide some insurance against that danger. The IMF has already outlined proposals for two global taxes: a levy payable by all financial institutions - not only banks - and a tax on their profits and pay.
And at next month’s G20 meeting in Toronto, EU leaders and other heads of government are expected to discuss the bank levy issue and to try to reach broad agreement on a co-ordinated global approach.
Ireland has a bank levy in place. Six domestic institutions pay it as the price of securing a State guarantee of their liabilities. And that levy will raise some €1 billion over two years. However, the sum represents a small financial offset for taxpayers against the huge cost of the bank rescue. The ESRI has estimated €25 billion as the “possible” net cost of recapitalising the banks, a figure mainly attributable to Anglo Irish Bank.
Reckless lending by financial institutions was a major contributory factor in crippling the domestic economy. No country has greater need than Ireland of adequate insurance against future financial failure. The EU proposal could help secure that protection though it would take considerable time for a levy to generate the billions of euro necessary to do so. A downside to the European Commission’s proposals – which are subject to change and require the approval of EU governments and the European Parliament – is that the cost of the levy would reduce a bank’s capital, and therefore curb its lending capacity.
The date set for implementation of the EU legislation is 2011. Time is not on its side. European banks are now being forced to pay more for short-term borrowings than their counterparts in the US and Asia because lenders are increasingly worried about their financial health, a declining euro and the weak state of the euro zone economy. The EU must act quickly. Member states need to reach agreement on the legislation and to implement it without delay. As matters stand, some differences exist on how to proceed: on whether the proceeds of the bank levy should be part of an EU-wide bailout fund, as favoured by Germany, or under national control, as France and Britain prefer.
Banks that behaved recklessly showed scant regard for financial risk. Nevertheless, governments were forced to rescue institutions that were regarded as too big to fail. As the decision not to save Lehman demonstrated, such banks posed a systemic risk to national economies. The bank rescues have required a massive intervention by governments and have left taxpayers paying the bill for the banks’ mistakes. The merit of the EU’s proposed levy is that it provides a means to insure banks against future financial failures. And for this insurance, as indeed for any bank failure, the banks rather than taxpayers must pay.