Frontpage Headline of the week- “Bankers in favour of paying global tax”

This was the title of a report in the Financial Times on Saturday January 30th. Josef Ackermann CEO of Deutsche Bank said “To help solve the too-big-to-fail problem, I’m advocating a European rescue and resolution fund for banks. Of course the capital for this fund would have to come from banks to a large degree” Barclays president Bob Diamond agreed that every G20 country would like to have an insurance scheme that would help cover the cost of any future bank failure”

Tormey says that government response to the international Banks should be more stern and prescriptive. The banks must collectively fund this whole institutional collapse problem across the G20 and at a minimum for the European Union through an insurance scheme collated by the European Central Bank. The details of the scheme should be agreed through ECOFIN – the European Union Finance Ministers meeting. Countries outside the Eurozone but members of the EU must be included and the scheme must become as a core membership issue for joining the Euro. I support Iceland as an EU member.