UK Chancellor Healey made no tax decisions following a meeting with bank chiefs, who warned that a windfall tax could damage international investor sentiment towards the UK, The Times reports

Pre-Budget kite-flying of this kind is a familiar pattern in UK fiscal cycles: proposals are floated through the press, industry pushback is invited, and the eventual package tends to land somewhere short of the most aggressive version trailed. Windfall levies on domestic banks have precedent in other jurisdictions and in prior UK episodes, and the consistent sequence has been consultation theatre, a scaled-back measure, and a relief move in the affected names once the tail is removed. The bank chiefs' argument on international investor sentiment is the standard industry playbook in these consultations and has historically carried some weight with chancellors wary of competitiveness optics. The distinction worth drawing is between a one-off levy on bank profits, which hits domestic lenders' earnings and their relative performance against European peers, and a permanent change to the bank surcharge or levy structure, which re-rates the sector's return profile more durably. What matters next is whether the Treasury keeps the option alive into the fiscal event itself or formally rules it out, and whether the absence of decisions here reflects genuine indecision or a settled direction being held back. As a report of no decision, the signal is that the overhang persists rather than resolves.