SIFMA today released the following statement from President and CEO Tim Ryan in response to the inclusion of a bank tax in President Obama’s FY 2013 Budget.
“Once again President Obama has proposed in his budget a tax on financial institutions under the guise of recouping lost TARP funds. It continues to be an ill-considered and ill-timed concept, especially since this year’s proposal is nearly double the cost of previous proposals. It is important to remember that TARP capital injections into banks have, by and large, been paid back with a significant profit to the taxpayer—over $19 billion by the end of 2011. Imposing a broad-based tax on financial institutions and unfairly tying it to the mostly repaid TARP program ultimately serves as a tax increase on individual investors.
“While our economy seems to be at the beginning stages of more sustained economic growth, our economic security remains in a delicate state. Financial institutions already face the burden of higher capital and liquidity standards set by Dodd-Frank and the Basel III framework. Adding onto these measures with a bank tax will only serve to impede the ability of financial institutions to provide the necessary capital formation and credit availability to continue to spur economic growth and job creation.”