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UK banks fail to sign up to conduct code

Wednesday 20 October 2010 - by Nicola York

Only four banks out of 15 in the UK have signed up to a code of conduct according to Chancellor George Osborne.

In the UK Government’s Spending Review announced today, Osborne said he would force the remaining 11 banks to sign up to the code by the end of November.

He lambasted the previous Labour government for not ensuring all banks had signed up to this code.

He said: "We want the banks to pay not just by the letter of the tax law, but by its spirit.

"A year ago, the previous government announced in a fanfare that it would require banks to sign up by the Code of Practice on Taxation.


"Mr Speaker, I have asked the Revenue how many of our leading 15 banks actually signed up. The answer is four. Four out of fifteen.

"That’s what happened when they were in office. All talk and no action.

"So I have instructed the Revenue to work with the banking sector to ensure the remaining banks have implemented the Code of Practice by the end of next month."

Osborne also announced that legislation on the introduction of a UK banking levy will be published tomorrow.

"We neither want to let banks off making their fair contribution, nor do we want to drive them abroad.

"Many hundreds of thousands of jobs across the whole United Kingdom depend on Britain being a competitive place for financial services.

"Our aim will be to extract the maximum sustainable tax revenues from financial services. We will assess what those maximum revenues could be – not just in one year, but over a period of years.

"We have already decided – in the face of opposition from the previous government – to introduce a permanent levy on banks.

"Once fully effective, the permanent levy will raise more net each year and every year for the Exchequer than the one-year bonus tax did last year – and I note that the previous Chancellor now admits that it failed to curb behaviour and was not sustainable."

Osborne also said the UK has the highest structural debt in Europe with total spending expected to reach £693bn by 2014/15.

Other measures announced in the Spending Review include a £900m crackdown on tax evasion and fraud which is expected to recover £7bn in missing tax revenues and £1bn will be set aside for a Green Investment Bank.


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