German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck traveled on Friday to the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Washington with a set of reform proposals aimed at preventing future financial crises.
Merkel, who has been calling for tougher regulations and more transparency for the global financial system, said Friday that she was traveling to the Washington summit with optimism to achieve the goal of setting a work program for the next 100 days.
"The pressure for action is high enough to do the job properly, " she said.
Speaking at the joint press conference, Steinbrueck played down expectations for many concrete results from the G20 summit. The talks would be a success if world leaders could agree on a mandate to lay down an "institutional and regulatory framework for the financial markets," he said.
The German government is set to advocate at the summit a set of proposals for reforming the global financial system, including creating a "global financial risk map" to allow financial authorities to quickly identify future trouble spots concerning major international financial institutions and major financial products.
The recommendations, drafted by a government-appointed panel of experts headed by former chief economist for the European Central Bank, Otmar Issing, also include the creation of a global register of big loans which would compiles major interbank and customer- specific exposure data to allow market players to learn about major risks involved in dealing with their counterparties.
Also suggested is better alignment of bonus for managers of financial institutions to discourage short-term risk taking.
Leaders from the G20 major industrial and emerging economies are due to meet in Washington on Saturday to discuss cooperative solutions to the current global economic meltdown and preventive measures on future crisis.
(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2008)
