BERLIN (MNI) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and German
Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Thursday that they have
progressed in efforts to agree on a set of global financial market
regulations, yet refused to detail what these agreements actually are.

“We have advanced quite a lot,” Schaeuble said at a joint press
conference with Geithner after a meeting of the two in Berlin. The
German Minister said they had “intensively” discussed all financial
market regulation topics in order to prepare the upcoming G20 meetings.

Geithner said the US and Europe were “in broad agreement” on the
importance of putting in place more conservative constraints on risk
taking and capital requirements and of bringing transparency and
disclosure to derivative markets.

Yet, the Treasury Secretary acknowledged that “we’re going to have
slightly different approaches, because we have different systems.”
Still, he said, “we’re in a very good position to reach agreement on a
global framework that works.”

The challenge is to come to a more stable and resilient system that
still allows for innovation, Geithner said. “We want to make sure we get
that balance right,” he stressed.

Schaeuble said the two had also talked about the current fiscal
crisis in the Eurozone.

The German Minister renewed his call to make the EU Stability and
Growth Pact more efficient and to tackle budget deficits in the
Eurozone.

Schaeuble promised that Germany will opt for a “measured” budget
consolidation and not lose sight of conditions for economic growth in
the country.

Geithner echoed these remarks. “We all understand that part of
recovery and part of growth is to make sure that we can make clear
credible commitments to restore gravity to our fiscal position over
time,” he explained.

“But we’re also all working to make sure that our economies are
growing, we’re creating incentives for private investment, for job
creation and we’re all trying to get that balance right,” Geithner said.

–Berlin bureau: +49-30-22 62 05 80; email: twidder@marketnews.com

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