Strengthened financial supervision and regulation

The G20 leaders agreed to take action to build a stronger, more globally consistent, supervisory and regulatory network for the future financial sector to rebuild trust in the financial system.

They agreed to establish a new Financial Stability Board (FSB) with a strengthened mandate as a successor to the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), including all G20 countries, FSF members, Spain and the European Commission. The FSB will collaborate with the IMF to provide an early warning of macroeconomic and financial risks and the actions needed to address them.

The leaders agreed on extending regulation and oversight to all systematically important financial institutions, instruments and markets, including systematically important hedge funds for the first time.

They reached consensus on taking action against non-cooperative jurisdictions including tax havens, and agreed to publish a list of tax havens. "The era of banking secrecy is over," said Brown.

They also agreed on extending regulatory oversight and registration to Credit Rating Agencies to ensure they meet the international code of good practice, particularly to prevent unacceptable conflicts of interest.

Positive reactions from major countries

US President Barack Obama called the London summit as " historical" and "a turning point" as "unprecedented and comprehensive" actions will be taken to revive the world economy.

Speaking at a press conference after the summit, Obama highly praised results of the meeting. The G20 have made enormous strides to improving financial regulation, but needs to reform failed regulatory systems and must put an end to bubble and bust economy.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also expressed his satisfaction with the final results, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the results "a very good, almost historic compromise" that will give the world a clear financial markets architecture.

Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende told BBC that said it has been "a remarkable meeting" and the results "are extremely important."

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe, who country is the only representative in the G20, told reporters he was "quite pleased" with the meeting results, citing that the leaders had agreed to protect financing for developing countries and pledged to conclude talks on a new global trade deal.

For people around the world, what is important next is to see how words turn into action.

"These commitments made by G20 leaders must be translated into concrete action. With this unprecedented stimulus package I am quite confident that we will be able to overcome this economic crisis," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon after the meeting.

According to Brown, the G20 leaders are scheduled to meet again before the end of this year to review progress on their commitments.

(Xinhua News Agency April 3, 2009)