Brexit puts financial trade tax on ice as banks start plans to relocate

Brussels

A SIX-YEAR push to impose a tax on financial transactions in Europe may have run its course, with Germany and France dragging their feet as they prepare for Brexit and a redrawing of the financial map that has already begun.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said earlier this month that Brexit could bring "thousands of jobs to Paris", an opportunity that could be lost if the tax were imposed. His German counterpart, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said that "quite a bit speaks in favour of the French argument to look first at how the Brexit negotiations are going". With the heavyweight boosters among the 10 countries pursuing the tax getting cold feet, the plan's future looks bleak.