Geithner: 99 percent of all banks won't pay the bank tax

In prepared remarks, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told a Senate panel that only a small fraction of banks would be subjected to the bank tax proposed by President Obama and those paying the levy would lose market share if they passed its cost onto their customers. 

"The fee excludes over 99 percent of U.S. banks, which currently provide the majority of small loans to businesses and farms across the country," Geithner said in a statement. "If covered firms try to pass on the costs of the fee to their borrowers, they will lose market share to other institutions."