S. Korea Economic Official Previews G20, Sees Bank Levy Possible

The establishment of a global lending entity will be high on the agenda of the next G20 meeting, a U.S.-based economic adviser to the president of South Korea said at an April 23 Newsmaker press conference. The meeting finance ministers and world bank governors will be held in South Korea in November.

Hyun-Song Shin, also a professor of economics at Princeton University, said the international lending agency could be patterned after a March currency trade accord among South Korea, Japan, China and some southeast Asian countries.

He also said a multilateral agreement on a post-financial crisis bank levy could be made, but only if other arrangements, like borrowing limits, are accepted as alternatives to a tax.

Advocates of such a tax, Shin said, might win over wary countries by permitting such substitutes as a cap on borrowing.