ST ANDREWS, Scotland -(Dow Jones)- The possibility of a financial transactions tax or insurance levy on banks to pay for the cost of cleaning up future financial crises will take time to develop and need universal approval U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling said Saturday.
"It's an issue where there's a lot of interest," he said in a news conference. It's "also an issue where people realize there's a lot of ground to cover."
Darling said much will depend on the reaction of G20 leaders next summer after governments have had to reflect on the possible options for a transactions tax.
Darling said that in any case, for a tax to be agreed, support for it "would have to be universal."
Darling also said the G20 had not discussed the role of the yuan at this weekend's finance ministers' summit.
He played down disappointment over the lack of a breakthrough on climate change issues, saying there had been "good progress" this weekend on the governance of climate change financing.
He said it was "inevitable" that some countries would not want to reveal their negotiating positions for the Copenhagen climate change talks a month before the meeting.
-By Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-207-842-9270; laurence.norman@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 07, 2009 12:08 ET (17:08 GMT)