NIIGATA, Japan, May 13 (Reuters) – Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of Seven (G7) have agreed that the global financial system is resilient but vigilance remains necessary, the Japanese government said on Saturday. Japanese Economy Minister Shunichi Suzuki.
The officials issued a joint statement pledging to address regulatory loopholes in the banking system uncovered during the recent troubles for US and Swiss banks, and said they would continue to work closely with supervisory and regulatory authorities to monitor developments in the financial sector. .
“We reaffirm that our financial system is resilient, supported by financial regulatory reforms implemented after the 2008 global financial crisis, including significant increases in banks’ capital and liquidity levels, an international framework for effectively resolving banks in bankruptcy, and enhanced cross-border regulatory and supervisory cooperation,” he said.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt, told reporters at a separate event that G7 finance officials had held “very frank and open talks” in Japan about the challenges they face, including banking regulation.
He said the UK believed the regulatory structures were working as intended and avoiding much worse problems, but there were clear lessons to be learned, including how digital transfers had accelerated the rapid pace of deposit withdrawals.
He hailed Britain’s quick work in facilitating a private sale of Silicon Valley Bank’s UK arm to HSBC, a move that protected deposits without taxpayer support, as a regulatory achievement.
However, he said the UK was reviewing legal and regulatory structures to ensure citizens had access to their deposits as soon as possible in the event of future incidents.
Hunt said Britain was also reflecting critically on the number of high-growth companies that had concentrated in a branch of a US bank, acknowledging that financing options for these sectors should be more diverse.
“We are looking at a wide range of things, including pension fund reform to see if we can unlock more options for those companies,” he said.
Suzuki also told a news conference that the issue of the US debt ceiling came up during the working dinner on the world economy, although he declined to say what other ministers discussed on the matter.
The ministers have concluded a three-day meeting in the Japanese city of Niigata. (Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto, Leika Kihara and Andrea Shalal; Writing by David Dolan; Editing in Spanish by Ricardo Figueroa)
Source: Ambito
