**President Barack Obama is expected to announce plans for a new tax to be levied on bailed-out US banks later.**The fee is designed to recoup some of the $120bn (£74bn) US taxpayers are expected to lose from bailing out the banks during the financial crisis.
It comes ahead of the latest reporting season on Wall Street, with banks expected to report record bonuses.
However, it is not yet clear how the fee will be levied, nor how much it is expected to raise.
Retrospective action
Reports suggest that Mr Obama will charge banks based on their assets or profits, rather than targeting bankers’ bonuses specifically as in the UK and France.
“There is a neat logic to the Obama approach”
Robert Peston, BBC business editor
Peston: Obama bashing the banks
The BBC’s business editor Robert Peston suggests that banks could be charged depending on their reliance on wholesale finance - money provided by other banks and financial institutions.
The tax, described by officials as a “financial crisis responsibility fee”, would be imposed over a period of 10 years, reports say.
It would amount to a retrospective bill for some of the taxpayer assistance received by these banks.
The US government spent more than $250bn bailing out banks during the financial crisis through its Troubled Asset Relief Programme (Tarp).
Although much of this money has been refunded, the cost of Tarp is estimated to be $120bn.