Treasury secretary to propose strengthened regulations in response to financial crisis News
Treasury secretary to propose strengthened regulations in response to financial crisis

[JURIST] US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner [official profile] said that the US Department of the Treasury [official website] will propose stronger rules [prepared remarks; transcript] in response to the current economic crisis, at a meeting with the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) [advocacy website] Wednesday. Geithner also said that the US should push for global financial reforms when he accompanies US President Barack Obama [official profile] to the G-20 [official website] meeting next week. Geithner said:

In the coming weeks, we will take additional steps, among them, proposing new and stronger rules to protect American consumers and investors against financial fraud and abuse. These will help us deal in the future with threats like the practices in subprime lending that kicked off the current crisis. And because we have learned that risk respects no borders, our plan will not focus solely on financial regulations in the United States, but – with the help of other interested nations and strengthened international bodies – on stronger standards globally, as well.

Fielding questions from the Council, Geithner said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) [official website] governor's plan [IMF factsheet] to "increase the use of the IMF's special drawing rights" deserves to be considered, and should not be thought of as a motion towards a global monetary union, but rather as building on current structure. Geithner also said that global response to the current financial crisis is already different from and motivated by the lessons of prior experiences.

Geithner has emphasized increased restrictions on financial institutions [press release, JURIST report] receiving government assistance. Geithner advocates expanding the powers of the chief financial regulating entities such as the Treasury and the Federal Reserve. Last month, a group of lawyers called for the formation of an International Finance Court [JURIST report] to adjudicate the issues around the Bernard Madoff [JURIST news archive] fraud case, and they will also seek to present their proposal at next week's G-20 meeting.

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