Hungary created waves in the spring when it announced it would seek to levy a 'Robin Hood' tax on the country's banks to plug a gap in the national finances.
It was not the fact that a bank tax was being implemented that caused a stir - similar proposals had been under discussion in Germany and the UK - but its scale. The Ft200bn (€712m) the government sought to raise each year for three years was larger in scale than anything contemplated elsewhere, amounting to 4.5% of gross domestic product (GDP).
