German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will lead a campaign for a tax on financial markets at the next summit of the Group of 20 economies in June, and called for international support.
Speaking at a conference on financial regulation in Berlin, Merkel did not specify whether she was seeking a financial activity tax, which would cover profits and bonuses, or a financial transaction tax, an across-the-board levy on all market dealings.
Merkel called on the international community to back this idea 'even if your countries have not been all that affected' by the recent crisis. Merkel received emphatic support from a top IMF official for her call for global reform efforts. 'No one knows where the next crisis is coming from, so even countries that were not at the epicentre of this crisis could be at the centre of the next one,' said Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's capital markets department. Opening the conference, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble said it was not his wish to 'stigmatise' speculators, but he stressed that 'financial markets no longer perform their function of serving the public good'.