European banks face an annual €19bn ($25bn) tax bill and as much as a 10% hit to profits if regulators opt for a US-style levy on individual balance sheets, according to analysis by KBW. The analysis comes in the week that the IMF published its own recommendations on bank taxes.

The G20 group of nations are set to meet in Canada in June to discuss, among other things, the possibility of imposing a levy on banks in the wake of the financial crisis. The US are known to favour a flat-rate charge on balance sheets and, according to Andrew Stimpson at KBW, this model remains the most likely to be implemented.