G20 must move faster on financial reform: Medvedev

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that the Group of 20 countries set to hold a summit this week must move faster to reach an agreement on reforming the global financial system.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that the Group of 20 countries set to hold a summit this week must move faster to reach an agreement on reforming the global financial system.

HT Image

"We need to more quickly reach an agreement that would be binding for all," said Medvedev, who added that his main message to the G20 summit is to "move faster."

While the global economy was slowly emerging from the crisis, "future difficulties may lie ahead," he warned.

"We have advanced in some areas," the Russian leader said during a two-day state visit to Switzerland. "But today, I would like to acknowledge that we don't have an agreement on a number of issues."

Medvedev noted there was no accord among the G20, which includes developed and developing countries, on issues surrounding the reform of institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.

A year after global finance imploded, US President Barack Obama hosts a G20 summit starting on Thursday aimed at tightening regulations to ensure such a calamity never happens again.

As countries claw back from recession, led by growth in Asia, the onus on leaders gathering in Pittsburgh is to decide when to pull the plug on state stimulus packages and how to coordinate that move.

The last G20 summit in April in London provided for stricter controls on bankers' pay and bonuses, more regulation of hedge funds and ratings agencies and sanctions against tax havens.