EU: France rejects special treatment for UK banks

France’s finance minister said on Wednesday British banks must not win special treatment under a proposed European Union reform package aimed at keeping Britain in the bloc after French banks warned the proposals were unfair.

“There are several proposals, several ambiguities, in the texts that could allow one to think there may be a difference in treatment between London and the others. That’s not possible,” Michel Sapin told members of the finance commission in the lower house of parliament.

“Treatment has to be as identical as possible and that’s why we are fighting,” Sapin said.

The head of the French Banking Federation, Societe Generale Chief Executive Frederic Oudea, said in a letter to President Francois Hollande that the package raised major problems. The letter was also addressed to Sapin.

European Council President Donald Tusk has proposed a reform package, which EU leaders will have to approve at a summit later this month, in the hope of persuading Britons to vote to stay in the European Union in an upcoming referendum.

Full content: Reuters

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