Commenting on statements made after the ECOFIN Council meeting today, Simon Lewis, Chief Executive of AFME, said:

“We are concerned to see reports from the ECOFIN Council meeting that there is a proposal for a FTT covering equities and derivatives. As we have consistently argued, this tax would, if implemented, drive up the cost of capital throughout Europe and run directly counter to the EU's economic growth agenda – affecting jobs and investment, as well as damaging the prospects for a Capital Markets Union. We urge the EU11 Finance Ministers to abandon such an inefficient and harmful tax and to focus their energies on the Commission’s growth agenda.”

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