What do you think of the European Commission’s proposals for each country to create an insurance fund specifically for banks to assist them in case of need? We take a very cautious view on bank taxes. It seems to us that we must first draw the lessons from the financial crisis with regard to prudential regulations, in particular the Basel III rules. The question of a possible tax should come second. That said, I am deeply concerned by this gulf between the values of our democracies and those of the financial world, reflected particularly in the abnormal behaviours observed so often in recent years. This problem is faced by all of our democratic societies, and certainly on both sides of the Atlantic. The values of the financial world must change. In the prevailing ethos, they will no longer be tolerated as they are. 4  BIS Review 76/2010
As in the past, in this latest episode the structural deficiencies identified are partly linked to a deficit of cohesion among the national economies that can only be remedied through further relinquishing of sovereignty. Perhaps the relative novelty of the recent crisis in the monetary union is that it shows, with particular seriousness, that any delay or lack of resolve in adopting the necessary reforms would not only be harmful to European construction but would generate very pronounced risks to economic and financial stability in Europe and the rest of the world. Admittedly, major reforms to monetary union governance have been made to date. I refer, for instance, to the new requirements made of domestic policies to contain macroeconomic imbalances in several areas, to the surveillance mechanisms established for these requirements and to the setting in place of national crisis-management systems, with centralised financial support arrangements for those countries most affected. However, such progress is not sufficient to ensure the proper functioning of a common monetary area. One of the main manifestations of the shortcomings observed is the continuing market fragmentation within the euro area. This is, namely, the existence of a country-risk component that means that markets assign different valuations to similar financial assets on the basis of the issuer’s nationality. In particular, the perceived risk of financial institutions’ liabilities depends to some extent on their geographical location.