European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso said that consensus was building among the world's major economic powers to ensure that no financial player was beyond regulators' reach.
"It's quite clear that this crisis has shown that there were problems of regulation and of supervision. We have to address those problems," he told reporters on Friday after a working dinner at a summit in Washington.
"No financial institution should escape regulation or supervision," he added. Leaders from more than 20 of the richest countries and emerging economic powers were meeting on Friday and on Saturday to grapple with how to restore lasting stability to the shell-shocked financial sector.
"We should establish more clear rules for the way global finance works and I think there is a great consensus for this," Barroso said.
"I'm not saying that we agree on everything, but I really believe that minds are much more open now to reform the principles of global finance and also at a later stage to reform the global financial institutions, namely the IMF."
With a growing number of countries facing recession, pressure is mounting on the leaders for a tough response to the fast deteriorating economic situation.
"There was great agreement on the need to act on the real economy," Barroso said. "We all know that we cannot make a reform of the global financial institutions in one or two days but what we can do as soon as possible is to create the conditions for global growth and global prosperity," he said.
{{/usCountry}}"There was great agreement on the need to act on the real economy," Barroso said. "We all know that we cannot make a reform of the global financial institutions in one or two days but what we can do as soon as possible is to create the conditions for global growth and global prosperity," he said.
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