Banking for justice: call for fair participation in budget consolidation

Banking for justice: call for fair participation in budget consolidation

Laimgrubengasse 10, 1060 Wien, Österreich - On March 7, 2025, the Chamber of Labor (AK) and the Austrian Trade Union Confederation (ÖGB) call for a drastic increase in banking, which is to contribute one billion euros to budget renovation by 2029 annually. ÖGB federal manager Helene Schuberth emphasizes that it is time to ask the crisis winners from the banking industry more to the cash register. The Austrian banks have already achieved over 30 billion euros in profits in the past three years, while the fees for customers rose and reduced branches as well as employees, such as Press reported.

Schuberth emphasizes that a banking is not only fair, but also economically portable. "While everyone else had to pay for the high loan interest, the banks only partially repaid what they received from tax aids during the financial crisis," she explains. In accordance with the proposals of AK and ÖGB, the banking is to be regulated by increasing the existing tax rates and a special contribution in a constitutional provision. The current intake of only 152 million euros from the existing bank tax, which was introduced in 2011, is in blatant contrast to the high profits of the banking institutions, such as Apa-OTS emphasized.

political support and resistance

The SPÖ is behind the demand for a substantial bank tax and describes it as "bid of budgetary and social reason". While the banks come up with the possibility that a bank tax could restrict lending, the supporters emphasize that the high profitability and the overlaps of the banks justify an appropriate contribution. Several EU countries have already taken similar measures to benefit from the profits from the banking industry.