ICAP chief says could quit EU over transaction tax

Broking giant ICAP will quit the European Union if a financial transactions tax proposed by Germany and France takes effect across the bloc, the company's chief executive said in a newspaper article on Sunday.
"Companies like ICAP will simply move elsewhere outside the EU if Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel push ahead with this silly tax," ICAP chief executive Michael Spencer was quoted as saying in the Independent on Sunday newspaper.
The French and German leaders proposed the tax on Tuesday as part of proposals to shield the eurozone from a deepening debt crisis, but Britain and the Netherlands have opposed such a measure, particularly if it does not apply globally.
Spicer, who has been a major donor to Britain's ruling Conservative Party, said that financial firms would relocate to New York and Singapore if such a tax came into being.