UK Continues to Oppose Financial Transaction Tax

Prime minister David Cameron has reiterated British opposition to a European financial transactions tax (FTT), saying it is “not a good idea”.

He fears it could damage the UK’s financial services sector and Europe’s global competitiveness.

The FTT aims to discourage speculative trading by taxing transactions of shares, currencies and bonds.

Speaking at a conference in London, he said a FTT would encourage financial firms to relocate outside the EU.

In April, the UK government launched a legal challenge against the plans in the European Court of Justice.

The tax would not work unless it was “applied globally”, he said.

Of 27 EU member states only 11 have signed up to the proposals: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Slovakia and Estonia.

Business lobby groups are concerned that UK firms trading with the UK branches of French or German banks could be hit by the tax

via BBC

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza