G20 ministers hold off on global bank tax

Finance ministers of the world's 20 leading economic powers on Friday stopped short of endorsing a controversial global tax on banks, instead calling for the International Monetary Fund to conduct more research into measures that would hold banks responsible.

Finance ministers of the world's 20 leading economic powers on Friday stopped short of endorsing a controversial global tax on banks, instead calling for the International Monetary Fund to conduct more research into measures that would hold banks responsible.

HT Image

In a communique released after their meeting in Washington, the Group of 20 (G20) bloc said more work was needed on how to ensure that financial firms "bear the burden of any extraordinary government interventions where they occur."

The idea of a flat tax on banks to cover the cost of any future financial rescues has divided the bloc of wealthy and emerging countries.

The United States and most Western European countries support the idea, but the tax has been resisted by developing countries and smaller wealthy nations whose banks played no role in causing a financial crisis that engulfed the globe in October 2008.