JAPAN: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde pushes for more reform in the banking sector to aid the global economic recovery

Record ID: 466469

  • Title: JAPAN: International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde pushes for more reform in the banking sector to aid the global economic recovery
  • Date: 6th July 2012
  • Summary: TOKYO, JAPAN (JULY 6, 2012) (REUTERS) INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) MANAGING DIRECTOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE WALKING TO PODIUM LAGARDE ADDRESSING CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND (IMF) MANAGING DIRECTOR CHRISTINE LAGARDE, SAYING: "Are we safer today than at the time of the Lehman crisis? I would say not quite yet." MORE OF LAGARDE SPEAKING AUDIE
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Economy
  • Reuters ID: LVA4FCG2NMQYVLYYV50942USSBX8
  • Story Text: International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde on Friday (July 7) said banks had failed to reform since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, setting back the global economic recovery.
    "Are we safer today than at the time of the Lehman Crisis? I would say not quite yet," Lagarde said in a speech in Tokyo.
    "Banking institutions, financial institutions in general have to concentrate on what is their core business, which is to finance the real economy. They have to be supporting not destabilising the economy, back to function instead of disfunction, back to service and not exclusively profit, forgetting about service," she added.
    Lagarde said the IMF's global growth forecasts have worsened in recent months -- and its next economic outlook, due to be published on July 16, is likely to be lower than the fund's previous forecasts.
    On Thursday (July 5), China, the euro zone and Britain loosened monetary policy in the space of less than hour, in a sign of growing alarm about the health of the global economy.
    But the European Central bank steered clear of bolder moves such as restarting its government bond-buying programme or pumping banks with fresh liquidity.
    Lagarde said a solution to the euro zone's problems would only be achieved with closer regional integration.
    "From the IMF perspective, we believe more has to be done to really complete the architectural job of the euro zone. A monetary union, a banking union, followed by a fiscal union," she said.
    The IMF is due to hold its annual meeting in Tokyo in October, the first time Japan has hosted the summit in almost half a century.
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