Banks cannot afford another Groundhog Day

On Tuesday last, the Irish Examiner reported that the International Monetary Fund had recommended in its latest Global Financial Stability report that banks should have to pay a levy based on the size of their liabilities. It is a recommendation that most of us could agree with.

However, we would have one prerequisite and it’s a simple and sensible one. Banks must not be allowed to pass the levy onto their customers under any guise or in any shape or form.

Without rehashing too much the events of the last seven years, it’s important that we put this recommendation from the IMF in context. Notwithstanding all of the many other parties and bit players who had a part in the outcome, the prime drivers of the collapse of economies right across the world was the financial services sector.