Germans and French may trip over their own tax in luring UK-based banks
Brussels — German and French efforts to lure big UK-based banks rattled by Brexit may trip over a snag of their making: financial transaction tax (FTT). Finance ministers of 10 EU countries, including Germany’s Wolfgang Schaeuble and France’s Michel Sapin, plan to convene this month to discuss the tax. Along with familiar issues they have struggled with for more than five years, they must factor in how FTT may damage their appeal to banks to relocate from London. A decision to impose the tax could benefit Ireland and Luxembourg, which have courted the big banks and are not part of the group pursuing the tax. "Germany and France are expending quite a lot of effort trying to entice financial services to Frankfurt and Paris, including derivatives desks," said Dan Neidle, a partner at Clifford Chance in London. "This isn’t going to work if the financial transaction tax is introduced by Germany and France." The European Commission proposed the tax in 2011 to make sure the industry paid i...
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