Banks hoping for levy freeze
BRITAIN’S banks hope George Osborne may begin to adopt a warmer tone to the sector at his Mansion House speech tomorrow.
Lenders do not expect the chancellor to stop bank bashing, as he introduced the bank levy and hiked it nine times, but they do hope for a softening in his tone.
HSBC boss Stuart Gulliver will say today that a “stable and predictable” tax regime will be a crucial factor in deciding whether or not to move the bank’s headquarters from London, according to Sky News.