A number of EU countries have decided to go ahead and implement the much-deabted Financial Transactions Tax, which is a tax on trading of certain financial instruments. The figures most quoted so far have been 0.1% for stock and bond trades, and 0.01% for derivatives trades.
The eleven countries which will be implementing the measure, potentially in the coming months, are Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Portugal, Belgium, Estonia, Greece, Slovakia and Slovenia.
A number of countries with significant stakes in the financial services industry, including Malta, the UK and Luxembourg have shunned the efforts to join this group, the main concern being that the new tax would discourage new investment in the EU and potentially lose current business, even though the costs might be passed by the banks and other investment firms to the end consumers. They argue that the tax could only be applied fairly if it is applied on a world-wide basis.
