Fixing crisis tops G20 bankers’ agenda at UK meet

Top executives of leading European, U.S. and Asian banks are expected to discuss capital adequacy, regulatory reform and attempts to kick-start the global economy at a meeting in London on Tuesday.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is hosting the roundtable, ahead of a meeting of Group of 20 (G20) leaders in London on April 2.

Bankers are expected to be asked about plans for massive change in financial market regulation, the need for banks to hold more capital and build up a bigger cushion in future, and the tighter regulation of hedge funds.

"The Prime Minister tomorrow will be meeting the CEOs of some of the world's largest commercial banks. They will be discussing the outlook for the global financial system and the reforms that need to be made," a spokesman for the prime minister said.

Alistair Darling, Brown's finance minister, and Adair Turner, the head of Britain's Financial Services Authority, will also attend. The spokesman said it was part of a series of meetings before the G20 event.

Bankers will be told the broad agenda of next week's G20 meeting and asked for feedback, a person familiar with the matter said.

G20 finance ministers agreed at a March 14 meeting to use their full fiscal and monetary firepower to combat the worst downturn since the 1930s. They said the top priority was to get lending, the lifeblood of the economy, flowing again.

Countries are introducing different schemes to clean up banks' toxic assets, which many say is vital to recovery, and on Monday the United States set out more details of a plan to help cleanse banks of up to $1 trillion of such assets.

The G20 summit brings together big developed and developing countries.

Chief Executives or senior executives are expected to attend from banks including Europe's HSBC, Santander, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered; U.S. lenders JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup; and Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group.