German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed optimism that an agreement on finance market reform, including a curb on excessive payments of bonuses and compensations, could be reached at financial summit of the G-20 nations, which opens in Pittsburgh on Thursday.
"We are on the right way since the first summit in November, last year. However, one can notice that some financial centres have become more sceptical about effective finance market regulation and control than at the end of last year.
"Therefore, we have to make every effort to ensure that the present financial crisis will not be repeated," she said yesterday.
Addressing a news conference after discussions with experts on the financial crisis, Merkel spoke of her determination to work for an agreement on more stringent regulation of financial markets and to prevent financial institutions from "blackmailing" the state.
It is extremely important that "every financial product, every financial location and every market participant must be brought under a new control" in order to prevent a recurrence of the crisis, she said.
The issue of financial market reform, especially a curb on excessive payments of bonuses, executive salaries and compensations by banks and other financial institutions, effective supervision of financial markets are among the central themes for discussions by the G-20 nations, including India.
Proposals to set new rules to govern the hedge funds and to tighten the supervision of credit rating agencies are also high on the agenda.
The German government wants to make sure that in future the state will not be blackmailed by a bank facing bankruptcy, the chancellor said.
"We want to make sure that in future it will no longer be possible for financial institutions to blackmail the state," Merkel said in an interview to a newspaper.
