BRUSSELS – The European Union's finance executive called Friday for banks to pay into a fund that could be drawn upon in case of collapse, an effort to shield taxpayers from the fallout of future crises.
Officials are also calling for new ways to deal with insolvent financial groups that operate in multiple countries to avoid a repeat of the messy and expensive cross-border wrangling that followed the September 2008 collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers.
EU financial services commissioner Michel Barnier, who can draft new EU rules, said taxpayers should not pay for "the excesses and inconsiderate risk-taking of financial institutions."
He said environmental rules insist that the polluter pays and "in financial matters, I don't see why it should be any different." He didn't promise to draft rules, saying he would first examine ways for sharing out the costs of bank failure.
The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahnalso called on the European Union to come up with "a fire brigade" to deal with the collapse of banks that operate across several countries. LINK
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