The fee, which will be music to the ears of critics who opposed Washington's $700-billion taxpayer-funded bailout of major investment banks and insurers in 2008, reportedly will be an attempt to recover some of that bailout cash, and will be part of the administration's strategy to discourage risky lending.
While the White House has been vocal in recent months about finding ways to temper the banks' often destructive instincts, it has been opposed to many concrete proposals for reigning in the banks.
As Politico reported when it first broke news of the bank fee Monday morning, the White House is critical of the approaches being considered in other countries. The European Union has come out in favor of a global transactions tax. (EU officials have argued it has to be implemented globally or multinational banks will simply move operations to where the tax doesn't exist.)
European leaders have been far more aggressive than the Obama administration in efforts to rein in excessive spending and risky lending by banks. Both British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have implemented temporary taxes on bank bonuses. There is no indication that Washington plans to follow suit.
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