Group of Seven finance ministers said they will agree to common rules to force banks to pay for possible failures after the financial crisis saddled taxpayers with trillions of dollars in liabilities.
Without giving details of how the plans will work, the ministers said Saturday that the world's most advanced economies should adopt common rules as long as other major countries also agree. Earlier Saturday, a British official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the G-7 is moving closer to an agreement on a bank insurance levy, one of a range of options proposed by the U.K. in November.
"We agreed to work together to make sure financial institutions bear the costs of their contribution" to the financial crisis, Canada's finance minister, Jim Flaherty, told reporters after chairing two days of talks in the northern Canadian city of Iqaluit.
In April the International Monetary Fund will recommend to the G-7 how best to proceed.
"We all share a deep commitment to try and move forward and reach agreement on a strong set of comprehensive financial reforms," U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim F. Geithner said Saturday at the same event.
Geithner said G-7 nations will continue efforts to agree on a set of common capital requirements for large institutions by the end of this year. The G-7 also pledged common standards on all aspects of banking regulation.
