G-20 Leaves Questions Unresolved as Focus Shifts to Pittsburgh
来自几个世界最大经济体的官员基本上同意控制银行家们的奖金，并为银行设立更高的资产负债表标准，但由于缺乏相关细节，未来几周还是有可能出现分歧。二十国集团(Group of 20)的财政官员上周六还表示要继续保持支持经济增长的政策，不过，随着经济开始从历时一年的低迷中趋稳，在何时以及在何种情况下，各国政府将开始撤销这些刺激政策还悬而未决。伦敦G20财长和央行行长会议概要二十国集团财长和央行行长会议上周末在伦敦闭幕，《华尔街日报》的菲德尔(Stephen Fidler)总结了这次会议的要点。20国集团就支付给银行家的奖金的指导原则达成一致，但并未规定可支付给个人的金额上限。在二十国集团会议之后，来自27个国家的央行行长和银行监管机构周日表示，他们将在今年年底前提出具体提案，加强银行资金储备。周末会议的结果将重点转向了9月24-25日在匹兹堡举行的世界领导人会议，届时各国市场和金融监管机构将试图制定整体蓝图的进一步细节，实现经济复苏防止再度发生银行业危机。国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁斯特劳斯-卡恩(Dominique Strauss-Kahn)称赞了二十国集团成员国政府间的合作。但他表示，各国需要坚守承诺，通力合作，进一步改革全球金融体系。他说，各国意见一致程度令我印象深刻，但我还是等待着各国确定强有力的举措并在国家层面加以实施。二十国集团要求国际监管组织金融稳定委员会(Financial Stability Board)考虑，是否有必要对各家银行作为红利发放的奖金总额设限。就银行家薪酬达成的协议要求，如果银行业绩在发放奖金之后出现恶化，很大一部分奖金应当追回。协议还要求一部分奖金延期发放。这两项要求都没有具体说明延期和追回条款如何运作。协议还要求顶级交易员披露更多信息。金融稳定委员会将在匹兹堡会议之前的几周内研究更具体的提案。各国官员希望在年底发放奖金之前出台新规。对于设立奖金上限的问题没有达成一致，而是要求金融稳定委员会考察是否应当根据具体情况对各家银行的奖金池设限。委员会将考虑对不服从规定的银行实施制裁。官员们在声明中表示，在经济复苏势头确立之前，他们会继续保持扩张性的财政和货币政策。他们担心，过早取消刺激举措会导致经济再次陷入衰退，在短暂增长之后重新下滑。官员们还认同，需要为从这些刺激举措退出做好准备。不过，尽管他们表示将制定相互合作与协调的撤出战略，官员们也承认各个国家撤出举措的范围时机与次序将各有不同。经济学家们表示，这给二十国集团的各成员国留下了实施空间，他们可以选择在复苏势头确立的情况下再取消刺激举措。汇丰(HSBC)首席经济学家简世勋(Stephen King)表示，虽然听起来各国可能会协调实施，但实际上各国之间可能根本就不会有协调。这种状况可能会导致央行上调利率和政府削减财政刺激举措的时机不同步，并在不同程度上对汇率和债券利率带来难以预料的影响。在此次会议之前，各国在需要维持刺激措施这个问题上几无异议，但谈到采取措施解决导致全球经济衰退的金融体系缺陷，各个国家却难以达成一致。二十国集团成员国还同意，将从2010年3月起对避税天堂实施制裁。那些不符合国际税务信息共享标准的国家和地区可能会无法得到国际货币基金组织和世界银行(World Bank)等国际金融机构的资金，也无法接受二十国集团成员国政府的援助。最大的意外是，各国官员宣布，一旦复经济苏势头确定，则需要采取更多措施来提振银行的缓冲资本。他们表示，银行应当持有更多更高质的资本，这意味着政府可能会督促银行更多的进行发行股票筹资，而不是使用近年来开发的较为复杂的衍生工具融资。周日，拥有27个成员国的巴塞尔银行监管委员会(Basel Committee on Banking Supervision)表示，他们计划采取的措施能改善银行资本的质量一致性和透明度。巴塞尔银行监管委员会表示，他们会推出一个杠杆率指标（股本占银行总资产的比率）用作衡量银行资本的关键变量。该机构表示，这个问题有望在2010年底前得到解决。STEPHEN FIDLER / LAURENCE NORMAN（更新完成）相关阅读法国与德国呼吁限制银行家奖金 2009-09-01美国国际集团称将为留住关键员工支付11亿美元 2009-08-08美众议院批准金融业管理层薪酬标准新规 2009-08-01美接受救助九家银行大发红包 2009-07-31
Officials from the world's largest economies broadly agreed to rein in bonuses for bankers and to set higher balance-sheet standards for banks, but missing details left the potential for differences in the weeks ahead.Finance officials from the Group of 20 Saturday also pledged to maintain policies designed to support economic growth, but left open when and under what circumstances governments would begin to unwind those stimulative policies as economies stabilize from a year-long downturn.The G-20 agreed on guidelines for the payment of bonuses to bankers, but those don't include a cap on the amount that can be paid to individuals. In a rapid follow up to the G-20 meeting, central bank governors and bank supervisors from 27 countries said Sunday they would make concrete proposals by the end of this year to stiffen bank capital buffers.The outcome of this weekend's meeting here now shifts focus to a gathering of world leaders in Pittsburgh Sept. 24 and 25, when markets and financial regulators will be looking for deeper detail of the broader blueprint for managing economic recovery and preventing another banking crisis.The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominque Strauss-Kahn, praised the degree of coordination among G-20 governments. But he said nations need to follow through on pledges to work together to further reform the global financial system. 'I'm impressed by the level of consensus, but I'm still waiting for strong measures to be decided and also to be implemented at the national level,' he said.The G-20 asked the Financial Stability Board─a group of international regulators─to consider whether a limit on the total bonus payments made by individual banks as a share of profits is needed.The agreement on bankers' pay calls for a large portion of bonuses to be clawed back if bank performance subsequently deteriorates. It also calls for the deferral of a share of bonuses. In both cases, there so far is no detail on how the deferral and clawback provisions would work The accord also demands greater disclosure on top traders.More detailed proposals will be worked on in coming weeks by the Financial Stability Board ahead of the Pittsburgh meeting. Officials want new rules in place before bonuses are paid out at year end. There was no accord to cap bonuses. Instead there was a request for the FSB to explore whether individual banks' bonus pools should be limited, depending on specific circumstances. It would examine possible sanctions for noncompliant banks.In their statement, the officials said their fiscal and monetary policies would remain 'expansionary' until the hoped-for economic recovery has taken root. They fear that a premature withdrawal of stimulus measures could lead to a 'double dip,' or a return to recession after a brief period of growth.They also agreed on the need to prepare for the withdrawal of those stimulus measures. But while officials said they will develop 'cooperative and coordinated' exit strategies, they also recognized 'the scale, timing and sequencing of actions will vary across countries.'Economists said that leaves room for individual G-20 members to remove stimulus measures when they judge the recovery to be secure. 'Although it sounds like there might be coordination, the reality is there might not be coordination at all,' said Stephen King, HSBC's chief economist.That leaves open the possibility that central banks will raise interest rates and governments move to cut fiscal stimulus at different times and to different degrees, affecting foreign-exchange rates and bond yields in unpredictable ways.Ahead of the meeting, there was little questioning of the need to maintain stimulus measures. But there was less agreement on action to eliminate weaknesses in the financial system that led to the global economic downturn.The G-20 nations also agreed to impose sanctions on tax havens from March 2010. Jurisdictions that don't meet international standards for sharing tax information may be deprived of funds from the international financial institutions─such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank─and they may also be deprived of aid from G-20 governments.The biggest surprise was the declaration by the officials that more needed to be done to boost banks' capital cushions 'once recovery is assured.' They said banks should hold more─and better quality─capital, meaning banks are likely to be urged to raise more equity rather than other more exotic instruments developed in recent years.On Sunday, the 27-strong Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said the measures it planned to adopt would improve 'the quality, consistency and transparency' of bank capital.The supervisors said they would introduce a leverage ratio -- which measures equity as a proportion of total bank assets -- as a key variable in measuring bank capital. The group said the measures should be settled by the end of 2010.STEPHEN FIDLER / LAURENCE NORMAN
Officials from the world's largest economies broadly agreed to rein in bonuses for bankers and to set higher balance-sheet standards for banks, but missing details left the potential for differences in the weeks ahead.Finance officials from the Group of 20 Saturday also pledged to maintain policies designed to support economic growth, but left open when and under what circumstances governments would begin to unwind those stimulative policies as economies stabilize from a year-long downturn.The G-20 agreed on guidelines for the payment of bonuses to bankers, but those don't include a cap on the amount that can be paid to individuals. In a rapid follow up to the G-20 meeting, central bank governors and bank supervisors from 27 countries said Sunday they would make concrete proposals by the end of this year to stiffen bank capital buffers.The outcome of this weekend's meeting here now shifts focus to a gathering of world leaders in Pittsburgh Sept. 24 and 25, when markets and financial regulators will be looking for deeper detail of the broader blueprint for managing economic recovery and preventing another banking crisis.The head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominque Strauss-Kahn, praised the degree of coordination among G-20 governments. But he said nations need to follow through on pledges to work together to further reform the global financial system. 'I'm impressed by the level of consensus, but I'm still waiting for strong measures to be decided and also to be implemented at the national level,' he said.The G-20 asked the Financial Stability Board─a group of international regulators─to consider whether a limit on the total bonus payments made by individual banks as a share of profits is needed.The agreement on bankers' pay calls for a large portion of bonuses to be clawed back if bank performance subsequently deteriorates. It also calls for the deferral of a share of bonuses. In both cases, there so far is no detail on how the deferral and clawback provisions would work The accord also demands greater disclosure on top traders.More detailed proposals will be worked on in coming weeks by the Financial Stability Board ahead of the Pittsburgh meeting. Officials want new rules in place before bonuses are paid out at year end. There was no accord to cap bonuses. Instead there was a request for the FSB to explore whether individual banks' bonus pools should be limited, depending on specific circumstances. It would examine possible sanctions for noncompliant banks.In their statement, the officials said their fiscal and monetary policies would remain 'expansionary' until the hoped-for economic recovery has taken root. They fear that a premature withdrawal of stimulus measures could lead to a 'double dip,' or a return to recession after a brief period of growth.They also agreed on the need to prepare for the withdrawal of those stimulus measures. But while officials said they will develop 'cooperative and coordinated' exit strategies, they also recognized 'the scale, timing and sequencing of actions will vary across countries.'Economists said that leaves room for individual G-20 members to remove stimulus measures when they judge the recovery to be secure. 'Although it sounds like there might be coordination, the reality is there might not be coordination at all,' said Stephen King, HSBC's chief economist.That leaves open the possibility that central banks will raise interest rates and governments move to cut fiscal stimulus at different times and to different degrees, affecting foreign-exchange rates and bond yields in unpredictable ways.Ahead of the meeting, there was little questioning of the need to maintain stimulus measures. But there was less agreement on action to eliminate weaknesses in the financial system that led to the global economic downturn.The G-20 nations also agreed to impose sanctions on tax havens from March 2010. Jurisdictions that don't meet international standards for sharing tax information may be deprived of funds from the international financial institutions─such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank─and they may also be deprived of aid from G-20 governments.The biggest surprise was the declaration by the officials that more needed to be done to boost banks' capital cushions 'once recovery is assured.' They said banks should hold more─and better quality─capital, meaning banks are likely to be urged to raise more equity rather than other more exotic instruments developed in recent years.On Sunday, the 27-strong Basel Committee on Banking Supervision said the measures it planned to adopt would improve 'the quality, consistency and transparency' of bank capital.The supervisors said they would introduce a leverage ratio -- which measures equity as a proportion of total bank assets -- as a key variable in measuring bank capital. The group said the measures should be settled by the end of 2010.STEPHEN FIDLER / LAURENCE NORMAN