Merkel accuses UK, US of blocking tighter financial controls

FE Team | Published: September 22, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

BERLIN, Sept 21 (Xinhua): German Chancellor Angela Merkel accused yesterday the United States and Britain of blocking her government's previous efforts to tighten the controls of financial markets.
According to German radio Deutsche Welle, Merkel made the remarks when speaking to a rally in Linz of Austria Saturday, where she was campaigning on behalf of the Austrian conservative People's Party (OeVP).
Merkel said her government had tried in vain to win Group of Eight (G8) support last year for tighter regulation of hedge funds and financial oversight of capital markets, hinting that she felt vindicated in her stance as a financial disaster unfolded on Wall Street in recent days.
"It was said for a long time 'Let the markets take care of themselves' and that there is 'no need for more transparency'," Merkel told the rally. "Today we are a step further because even America and Britain are saying 'Yes, we need more transparency, we need better standards for the ratings agencies'," Merkel was quoted as saying.
In a separate interview with a Munich newspaper, Muenchner Merkur, to be published Monday, Merkel criticised the United States and British governments for obstructing Germany's efforts in the first half of 2007 to bring greater transparency to the markets.
"I criticise the perception that the financial markets have of themselves," she told the paper. "Alas, they have opposed for too long the introduction of rules with the backing of the British and American governments," she said.
Merkel said when Germany headed the G8 group of industrialised nations last year, it had advocated greater transparency in international financial transactions, especially in hedge funds.
She said a single nation like Germany could do little by itself to fix the international financial system.
"That's why I and Finance Minister Steinbrueck insisted back in 2007 during the German presidency of the Group of Eight that we need more rules for greater transparency in international money dealing, with the ratings agencies and with the hedge funds," she was quoted as saying.