TARGET2-Securities, Financial Transaction Taxes and Europe as a Financial Backwater

A colleague recently pointed out that the industry was spending around a billion euros to introduce TARGET2-Securiites, which would save investors the odd hundred million a year in transaction fees, according to an early and optimistic ECB estimate. At the same time, 11 EU countries are talking of introducing a financial transaction tax that will cost the market, if their revenue raising assumptions are right, around €35 billion per annum.

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