G20 Highlights

G20 finance leaders have agreed to coordinate the removal of emergency economic packages when recovery takes a firm hold, however they struggled on the detail of measures to restraint bank pay and lending rules at the root of the recent crisis.

As the global economy continues to look better than compared to April when the G20 finance ministers and central bankers last met, the focus has not shifted from fighting the crisis to establishing a safer financial system for the future.

We see that policymakers have agreed that they must keep spending the $5 trillion (U.S.) that is already marked as economic stimulus. However, some G20 sources have expressed their frustration that there was not more progress made in curbing excessive pay packages for bankers.

Bank have to set aside more profits as a cushion against hard time and face the limits on how much debt they can run up under the proposed new global rules agreed by top central bankers and regulators on September 6th.

The statement by the G20 showed that an agreement that emerging nations such as India and China should have a greater say in the running of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, however no method was offered on how this should be achieved.

Finance ministers and central bankers have agreed to give tax havens until March 2010, cooperating on tax evasions and face sanctions.