SIR – The EU has insisted that the banks in Cyprus should foot the bill for their own failure rather than expect the taxpayers of other EU countries to pay their bills.

In return for an EU bailout, the EU is insisting that the banks and their depositors pay their debt first by a levy on depositors’ funds, estimated at 20 per cent.

Cyprus has come unstuck by trying to attract savings in a low tax, high interest environment which, when carried to its extreme, is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme.

What a splendid idea.

According to various studies, something like $11 trillion, a third of the liquid assets belonging to the world’s wealthy individuals, sits in tax havens, representing an annual tax loss of about $250 billion to governments.

A 20 per cent ‘haircut’ would settle the debts of all developing countries.

Or you could say that a 20 per cent ‘haircut’ of liquid assets held in tax havens under British jurisdiction would clear the national deficit at a stroke.

The world’s high-net-worth individuals (HNWI) worth $1 million or more in liquid assets, amount to 0.13 per cent of the world’s population but own 77 per cent of the world’s total $42 trillion liquid net worth.

The EU’s stand on Cyprus banks is showing the way to a more equal and just world.

PETER NIELSEN

Worcester