Group of Seven finance officials are gathering in Washington for talks to discuss plans to prevent a repeat of what the IMF chief says is the worst financial crisis since the 1930s Great Depression.
The meeting of key finance ministers and central bank governors comes amid increasingly grim forecasts for the international economic outlook, with worries about a global slowdown and a US recession.
Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke said on Thursday that the current financial crisis needs speedy action to improve US market regulation, endorsing a plan by a US task force.
'We do not have the luxury of waiting for markets to stabilise before we think about the future,' Bernanke said in a speech.
The G7 ministers will consider a plan drafted by a global group, the Financial Stability Forum (FSF), that would require banks and securities firms to be more transparent in their dealings and boost capital reserves as part of improved risk management to avert future crises.
If approved by the G7 rich countries, the new guidelines could be in place later this year in an effort to avoid the kind of surprise losses incurred by many financial institutions when the US property market soured.
The plan would require credit rating firms to differentiate their ratings for complex investment products and provide more information about how they come up with their ratings.
The plan would also boost co-operation and information exchanges among central banks and market authorities, with cross-border meetings by year-end.
The meeting of the finance officials from the G7 - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US - comes on the eve of the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank this weekend in Washington.
International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said on Thursday that the current global turmoil was the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
