Saturday, October 04, 2008

Europe seeks to coordinate banking system clean-up

Four big European nations have pledged to coordinate efforts for a new regional financial system with improved regulation, supervision and morality, in a response to the credit crunch crisis spreading from the US.

The consensus came after a meeting of heads of state of France, the UK, Germany and Italy as well as senior officials from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the Eurogroup. Britain, France, Germany and Italy are Europe's representatives on the G8.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who convenced the gathering on Saturday, stressed that entrepreneurial capitalism instead of speculation is needed. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said ethics should be brought back to banking systems.

British Premier Gorden Browns said his country will do whatever is necessary to stabilise the financial market, citing the bail out of Northern Rock and other actions. Liquidity will be ensured to preserve confidence, said Mr. Brown, adding that the participants have agreed to ask the European Investment Bank for 25-billion-pound loans for small businesses, clean up the financial system and set up a college of regulators.

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