G-20 Communique to Spell Out Global Economic Principles

Reuters has a good roundup on the state-of-play when it comes to the communique being drafted by G-20 nations regarding economic and financial policymaking.

A formal communique -- a statement of goals and principles -- is expected before the summit ends today.

Some of the highlights from Reuters:

* Leaders have made commitments to increase the amount of capital banks need to hold to offset losses, to limit leverage and to allow for fewer accounting tricks. Much of this work won't be finalized until 2012, though.

* G-20 nations are expected to come up with an agreement to guide how pay packages should be crafted by banks, modeled after work being done by the Financial Stability Board.

* Nations are expected to agree on tougher regulatory actions to combat dramatic price swings in financial and commodity markets

* The exotic financial instruments known as derivatives will come under government regulation for the first time.

-- Zachary A. Goldfarb