大西洋两岸的银行昨天忙于回应日益加大的政治压力。目前公众对银行家奖金的愤怒不断升温，而美国官员正研究开征新税，以收回政府在金融危机中的损失。
Banks on both sides of the Atlantic yesterday scrambled to respond to mounting political pressure as public anger over their bonuses grew and US officials worked on a new levy to recoup the government's losses in the financial crisis.
纽约市场早盘交易中，美国银行类股整体下跌。投资者不看好奥巴马政府的一项计划，即向银行开征新税，以求弥补政府纾困基金估计1200亿美元的亏损。
US bank stocks fell throughout the morning in New York as investors took a dim view of the Obama administration's proposals to charge banks a levy to pay for the estimated $120bn that the government lost on its bail-out fund.
有大量存款的银行可能受到新税的最大影响，其股价跌幅最大，其中美国银行(Bank of America)、摩根大通(JPMorgan Chase)和花旗集团(Citigroup)均下跌约3%。
Lenders with a large deposit base, which are likely to bear the brunt of the planned levy, were the worst hit, with Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup all down by about 3 per cent.
加剧市场担忧的是，美国金融监管机构——联邦存款保险公司(FDIC)也证实了英国《金融时报》上周率先报道的计划，即它将在评估各银行缴纳存款保险基金的份额时，也将考虑银行的薪酬政策。
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, a financial regulator, compounded the market's worries by confirming plans – first reported by the Financial Times last week – to consider banks' compensation policies when assessing their contributions to a deposit insurance fund.
预计相关政治热度今天将进一步升温，因为今天美国金融界首脑人物将前往国会作证，配合调查本轮经济危机的起因。这些人士包括高盛 (Goldman Sachs)的劳埃德•布兰克费恩(Lloyd Blankfein)、摩根大通(JPMorgan)的杰米·戴蒙(Jamie Dimon)和摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)的麦晋桁(John Mack)。
The political heat is expected to rise further today when top US financial executives, including Goldman Sachs' Lloyd Blankfein and JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon and Morgan Stanley's John Mack, will testify before a Congressional inquiry into the causes of the crisis.
了解上述银行首脑证词的人士表示，他们将采取和缓的语调，针对银行业在引发1930年代以来最严重经济衰退方面所起的作用，化解紧张局面。
People briefed on the executives' testimonies said that they would strike a conciliatory tone in an effort to defuse the tension over the sector's role in causing the worst economic downturn since the 1930s.