BRUSSELS, Sept 28 (Reuters) - European Union governments will aim to reach a deal on a bank tax by the end of the year and also look at whether to introduce financial penalties for credit rating agencies, the bloc's presidency said on Tuesday.
Didier Reynders, finance minister for Belgium, which holds the EU presidency, said the EU was still working on measures to ensure that banks and not taxpayers pay for bailouts in future.
The bloc's executive European Commission is studying a levy on banks.
"We will try to reach an agreement on that by the end of the year," Reynders told a Eurofi symposium on EU regulation.
The bloc is also studying a more controversial tax on financial transactions but Reynders signalled that consensus on that was much further away.
Reynders also said the new European Securities and Markets Authority, which will be launched next January, should have powers to impose financial penalties on credit rating agencies.
The sector was tarnished in the financial crisis by giving high ratings to securitised products which quickly became untradable and plunged in value.
The United States has already approved a sweeping reform of Wall Street and the EU is behind in some areas as it seeks to end a logjam over new rules for hedge funds.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said approval this month of a new supervisory framework was a "huge achievement" and sets the "gold standard".
"The results prove we are up to the job," Barroso said.
The EU executive was committed to putting forward all remaining financial reforms by early 2011, he added.
He said the EU had a duty to act responsibly to make sure such reforms do not choke recovery.
Barroso said banks needed to show that the "culture of excessive bonuses" was over and that responsible lending measures for the sector should be a priority in coming months. (Reporting by Huw Jones and John O'Donnell, editing by Mike Peacock)