Brown confident global bank tax deal "close" - papers

Gordon Brown believes the large economies are close to agreeing a global tax on banks which would cost the financial sector billions of pounds a year - but he played down expectations of a final deal at the next G20 meeting in June.

Brown, who held talks with Angela Merkel, German chancellor, last week, said the scene was set for a -"global responsibility levy", the Financial Times reports. He said Britain, France and Germany were now broadly agreed on the need for a levy, and he hoped the US would come on board. "Britain, France and Germany have talked about what we can do together," he said. "We are agreed on the need for a common basis." France and Germany last week jointly backed an internationally co-ordinated levy. Read more...