The Robin Hood tax is mentioned again by the chief of Romania's government
Unless banks decrease their interests to support the government and the population's efforts to overcome the crisis, the Robin Hood Tax will be enforced, declared the Prime Minister Emil Boc.
As the loan from the International Monetary Fund increased the central bank's foreign currency reserve and diminished minimum mandatory reserves, the market will inevitably have more money, explained the PM.
The Robin Hood tax could be levied on profits that external banks make at their local subsidiaries, if they decide to remove financing lines, declared Boc on May 19.
However, the premier said then that there were no signals banks intended to take away financing lines after the minimum mandatory reserves maturing in more than two years were slashed to zero.
Financing lines from mother banks in Greece and Austria to Romanian lenders were cut back by 2.293 billion euros in the period September 2008 – March 2009, while the equity of the respective Romanian subsidiaries dropped by 472 million euros, the central lender announced on May 14.
Meanwhile, French lenders hiked their financing lines to Romania by 722 million euros and Italy increased them by 134 million euros in the same period.