Of Special Interest
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- Newslink Trends-The Global Strategic Perspective
- Juniper Research says digital wallet users to exceed 4.4 billion by 2025, as mobile drives digital payments’ revolution
- Criminals exploit COVID-19 pandemic with rise in scams targeting victims online
- Equifax says Open Banking proving pivotal to pandemic lending
- Consumer confidence in banks, credit card providers and investments remain stable as demand supercharges digital finance says Toluna research
- Mintos says Europeans are starting to embrace investing
- US banks see IT modernisation as a way to improve customer experience
- Risk mitigation in global trade depends on digitisation-Andrew Raymond, CEO, Bolero International comments
- Juniper Research new study says the volume of B2B payments facilitated by non-banks will exceed 53 billion in 2022, from a COVID-related low of 38 billion in 2020
- CMA issues fifth publication over 3 years of the service quality league table of personal and business current account providers
- Barclays says scammers take advantage of COVID-19, cashing in on nations’ uncertainty
- S&P Global report says financial market infrastructure sector's earnings likely to cool off In second half
- Global banking market capitalisation slumps by over 30% amid pandemic says Buyshares research
- Digital wallet spend in Europe & North America to increase by 40% in 2019, finds study
- Juniper forecasts mobile money transactions will exceed 200 billion by 2024
- Banks can save the world from climate change, says former UN climate chief
- Research by NatWest reveals gender divide over attitudes to saving
- Europe’s big bank problem: too much capital is trapped in the US, says Scope
- Later-Life lending market set to almost double in the next 10 years, finds report
- Barclays/Cebr report challenges nation to think differently about wealth
- Fifth of UK investors looking to debt investment, new research reveals
- Regtech will play a more important role in PSD2, says Mitek
- Banks turn to Fintech partnerships to improve customer experience, finds Fraedom
- New industry code to tackle fraud must deliver, says Which?
- New TTF report highlights loss of trust in financial services
- Arxan highlights financial app vulnerability epidemic
- SAS asks whether banks really need to choose between operations and innovation
- Which? raises alarm as almost 1,700 free ATMs become fee-charging
- Financial wellness affects half of peoples’ mental or physical health, finds report
- Study finds traditional financial institutions embrace Fintech disruption
- Grass is greener for environmentally friendly businesses, finds Barclays
- Prospective homeowners would consider a 40-year mortgage to escape renting, finds Santander
- Millennials’ needs are changing the face of banking industry, says new report
- FS is putting consumer data at risk by failing to protect mobile apps, says Arxan
- A lack of belief in their ability holds 28% women back in work, says Cambridge & Counties
- ‘Which?’ reveals Scotland has lost over a third of its bank branches in eight years
- Next downturn unlikely to be as bad as 2008, according to S&P
- FCA reveals findings from first cryptoassets consumer research
- US consumers favour single mobile app for banking and payments
- Banks suffering major IT shutdowns every day, ‘Which?’ reveals
- The US will be a key offshore centre in 2019, says GlobalData
- Debit industry changes markedly in 10 years of the Debit Issuer Study
- UK's ‘Big Five’ face ‘too big to compete’ as small challengers secure stellar returns
- Banks as vulnerable now as before crash, says new study
- Leverage ratio a constant conundrum for European and US banks, says SNL
29th November 2011
Hedge fund chief backs Financial Transaction Tax
The Financial Times reports that David Harding, Chief Executive of Winton Capital has spoken out in favour of the proposed Financial Transaction Tax, otherwise known as the Tobin Tax or Robin Hood Tax (the latter dependent on how the proceeds are used). The tax is charged on all financial transactions between institutions / not involving a member of the public and would be set as a small fraction of 1%. Harding is the first head of a major hedge fund to publicly support the idea.
Harding said: "I would be in favour of a low financial transaction tax if part of it was used to finance more supranational regulation of markets." Given that Harding is also a major donor to the Conservative party he was surprisingly critical of the government stating, "I am surprised to the degree to which the Treasury and the FSA act as lobbying organisations for the financial services industry. There is too great a tendency to see everything as a plot against the British. Everyone in the financial services industry is a big eurosceptic."
Such a tax was discussed by the G8 and G20 during the 2008/09 banking crisis and some favourable comments were made but it was never pursued. More recently the Eurozone countries proposed the tax as a way of providing some of the funds to help bail out the southern European countries with sovereign debt problems. The UK is the main home to hedge and other funds and banks that would have to pay the tax. The UK government's official position is that it would it support the tax providing the other major financial centres were to do the same. The reasoning being that financial institutions would simply switch the location if the tax was imposed in some countries but not others. More recently increasingly colourful language has been used by the government including the chancellor, George Osborne describing the tax as a 'bullet aimed at the heart of London' as it tries to appease it powerful anti-EU members in parliament . The US shows no interest in introducing the tax despite the fact that funds raised could be used to help reduce its very high sovereign debt.
Another argument, again voiced by government ministers is that the tax would be a tax on pensions as pension funds need to switch funds frequently. Equally it could be argued a reduction in High Frequency Trading which would be another likely outcome might help pension fund profitability. The HFT reduction may also lead to more market stability without such a high risk of repeats of the 'Flash Crash' in 2010.