1. The Financial Transaction Tax:
Feasibility, Desirability, Political Will
David Hillman
Director
Leading Group 12th Plenary Conference, Abuja
17th January 2014

2. What is the FTT? Taxing financial transactions
such as: stocks, bonds, foreign exchange,
derivatives ie futures, forwards, swaps, options
European FTT legislation - rates: 0.01 – 0.1%
Revenue: 34 billion euro per annum
Spending: 50% domestic; 50% international:
Development/health (25%) + climate change (25%)

3. Feasibility Heritage and provenance
More than 40 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Netherlands, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, UK, US
FTTs only ever implemented unilaterally:
re-location of trading dealt with by ‘good design’

4. Desirability Stability – an anti-churning tax Revenue
Leading Group – Innovative Financing for Development – Solidarity Levies
Aviation taxes  UNITAID – pilot project

5. Political Will
Policy developed over years – financial crisis –> policy space opened
History: France  Germany
EU 27-country legislation  Enhanced Cooperation Procedure: side-stepping of blockers
Current situation: negotiating text  May 6th
Allocation: given where initiative started ie here – importance of as a high a proportion as possible going to development

6. Prospects in Africa
The opening of policy space – the FTT is no longer off limits
African countries with largest financial sectors can generate the most revenue
Revenue can be spent domestically on Public Goods such as health and education
It is time the financial sector carried more of the burden