THERE WILL BE MORE WEALTH CONFISCATION....

'There will be more wealth confiscation, without a doubt'

Savers and investors face further "wealth confiscation" in Europe as the continent struggles to resolve the single currency's problems, a bank chief has said.

Cypriots protest against the ratification of a tax on bank deposits in Nicosia on March 18 - 'There will be more wealth confiscation, without a doubt'

Earler this week savers at Bank of Cyprus saw 37.5pc of their balances above €100,000 converted into shares Photo: EPA
Richard Evans

By Richard Evans

11:35AM BST 30 Apr 2013


European politicians will take the "easy option" of taking money from the rich rather than raising taxes and cutting spending to deal with the continent's debt problem, Lars Christensen, the head of Saxo Bank, said.

Asked if the raid on uninsured savings in Cyprus would be repeated, he told City AM: "There will be future bail-ins [loss of deposits] and other types of confiscation of wealth in the eurozone, without a doubt.

"There's no other realistic way forward if politicians continue to fail to deal with the basic indebtedness problem across Europe. They will either have to raise taxes and cut spending, or politicians will take the easier route and take money from the rich."

Earlier this week savers at Bank of Cyprus saw 37.5pc of their balances above €100,000 converted into shares, with a further 22.5pc at risk and 30pc frozen.

Following the Cyprus deal, several senior German economists proposed that wealth taxes be used to fund future bail-outs in the eurozone, with British owners of holiday homes potentially in the line of fire.