October 29, 2010

TG-931

Readout of Meeting Between

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner
and European Commissioner Michael Barnier

U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and European Commissioner Michel Barnier
met today and reaffirmed their strong determination to continue cooperating closely
in strengthening the global financial system and in promoting and putting in place
the G-20 financial reform agenda.

They reiterated the fact that the United States and the European Union, as the
world's two largest economies and financial systems, have a special responsibility
to promote and implement stronger global financial standards, reduce further the
scope for regulatory arbitrage and work toward greater regulatory convergence and
consistency.

They reviewed the progress in implementing the G-20 financial regulatory

commitments. In particular, they noted the significant achievements reached on
both sides of the Atlantic - in the United States with the enactment of a vast set of
financial reforms in the Dodd-Frank Act and in Europe with the approval of several
legislative measures and an extensive on-going legislative agenda. They look
forward to a productive trans-Atlantic dialogue among their new supervisory
structures.

They welcomed the agreement reached in the Basel Committee on Banking

Supervision on September 12, 2010 on stronger capital and liquidity requirements.
They reaffirmed their intention to implement the agreement in the respective
jurisdictions in accordance with the internationally-agreed timing. Both sides
agreed to a December 2011 implementation date for the Basel trading book rules.

They agreed on the importance of robust crisis management mechanisms and to

implement strong resolution regimes, as endorsed by G-20 Leaders in Toronto,
which require additional resolution powers and expanded institutional capacity.
They reiterated that no firm is too big or too complicated to fail and that taxpayers
should not bear the costs of resolutions. They agreed that systemically important
global financial institutions must improve their capacity to absorb losses and be
subject to enhanced supervision and regular stress tests.

They reaffirmed their commitment to continue their strong and close bilateral co-
operation on regulatory reform in the OTC derivatives markets. This co-operation
has allowed for the proposed new rules regarding the clearing of over-the-counter
derivatives and the development and supervision of derivatives infrastructure to be
consistent and implemented in an open, convergent, and non-discriminatory
manner. They confirmed their commitment to achieve convergence during the
implementation and the finalisation of all the OTC derivatives reforms on both sides
of the Atlantic. They reaffirmed their support for the G-20 Leaders' commitments on
accounting convergence.
Finally, while welcoming the important step made by the European Member States
and the European Parliament in negotiations on the Alternative Investment Fund
Management Directive, they reaffirmed their on-going commitment to the principle
of non-discrimination in current discussions as well as in the future development
and implementation of rules for fund managers and funds, in recognition of the
importance of maintaining a global level playing field.

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