Reply #20: G20 nations seeking quick action on Greece

[Demeter]

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/g20-nations-want-quick-action-on-greece-2010-04-23?siteid=YAHOOB

The G20 finance ministers and central bank governors remain concerned about Greece's debt crisis and are urging a speedy response to the situation, Canada's finance minister said on Friday.

"There has to be some kind of fiscal resolution. All G20 members are concerned the concern persists," James Flaherty told reporters at a briefing at the end of the all-day closed-door meeting of the group's officials meeting in Washington.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner also called for swift action on the matter.

The G20 was briefed on the Greek crisis by Dominique Strauss Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

Earlier Friday, Greece formally asked to tap a European Union-International Monetary Fund aid package worth roughly $60 billion.

Flaherty's comments aside, the G20's official communiqué issued after the group's meeting didn't mention the Greek crisis.

The statement said the global recovery has progressed better than previously anticipated.

G20 officials said the group has made progress toward developing joint regulatory responses to the financial crisis.

The statement also stopped short of endorsing an international tax on banks. The IMF, however, is working on a proposal for a tax on bank liability and another tax on bank profits to present to the G20 leaders summit in Toronto in late June.

"Some countries are in favor of that. Some clearly are not," said Flaherty, who opposes the idea.

It comes down to whether the country's taxpayers had to bailout banks, he said.

South Korean finance minister Jeung Hyun Yoon said that China's peg to the dollar wasn't discussed at the meeting.

He said China's currency would be a topic at the group's June summit. By that time the IMF will make recommendations for actions that countries could take to foster better balance of global growth.