Swiss finance minister Hans-Rudolf Merz has rejected the idea of an international tax on banks, disagreeing with a proposal by the International Monetary Fund to impose a levy on banks, media reports said.

Merz was speaking at meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington at the weekend.

The idea for such a tax has the support of countries that include the US and UK.

Merz was quoted saying that the differences of opinion among IMF member states have widened on the issue of how to prevent new crises.

“Three years ago, there was unanimity about the crisis and its scale. This unanimity was also there last year. But today, opinions differ over concrete measures to put in place,” he was quoted as saying.

“The financial sector must not be burdened any more,” Merz said, adding that “each country has gone through the crisis in a different way and has drawn different conclusions”.

“[Swiss bank] UBS paid back Swiss taxpayers’ money with a profit of SFr1.5 billion ($1.39 billion). The Swiss situation is therefore different from that of countries which supported their banks with tens of billions and which are still involved with these banks,” he explained.