G20 nations fail to agree on global bank tax

THE group of G20 nations have failed to agree on a proposal to impose a global tax on banks aimed at making the financial industry shoulder the cost of bailouts, settling instead for a common set of guidelines.

G20 finance ministers and central bank governors said in a statement in Busan, South Korea, that governments will take account of each nation’s “circumstances and options.”

The result allows nations such as Canada, China and Brazil, whose banks suffered less during the global financial crisis, to skip introducing a tax. European countries and the US have advocated the levy.