05 November 2011

Communiqué G20: Leaders' Summit in Cannes on 3-4 November 2011

The leaders welcomed the euro area's comprehensive plan and urged rapid elaboration and implementation, including of country reforms. They are also ready to ensure additional resources on a range of various options, including bilateral contributions to the IMF.

Reforming the financial sector and enhancing market integrity

12. In Washington in 2008, we committed to ensuring that all financial markets, products and participants are regulated or subject to oversight, as appropriate. We will implement our commitments and pursue the reform of the financial system.

13. We have agreed on comprehensive measures so that no financial firm can be deemed “too big to fail” and to protect taxpayers from bearing the costs of resolution. The FSB publishes today an initial list of Global Systemically Important Financial Institutions (G-SIFIs). G-SIFIs will be submitted to strengthened supervision, a new international standard for resolution regimes as well as, from 2016, additional capital requirements. We are prepared to identify systemically important non-bank financial entities.

14. We have decided to develop the regulation and oversight of shadow banking. We will develop further our regulation on market integrity and efficiency, including addressing the risks posed by high frequency trading and dark liquidity. We have tasked IOSCO to assess the functioning of Credit Default Swaps markets. We have agreed on principles to protect financial services consumers.

15. We will not allow a return to pre-crisis behaviours in the financial sector and we will strictly monitor the implementation of our commitments regarding banks, OTC markets and compensation practices.

16. Building on its achievements, we have agreed to reform the FSB to improve its capacity to coordinate and monitor our financial regulation agenda. This reform includes giving it legal personality and greater financial autonomy. We thank Mr Mario Draghi for the work done, and we welcome the appointment of Mr Mark Carney, Governor of the Central Bank of Canada, as Chairman of the FSB, and of Mr Philipp Hildebrand, Chairman of the Swiss National Bank, as Vice-Chairman.

17. We urge all jurisdictions to adhere to the international standards in the tax, prudential and AML/CFT areas. We stand ready to use our existing countermeasures if needed. In the tax area, we welcome the progress made and we urge all the jurisdictions to take the necessary actions to tackle the deficiencies identified in the course of the reviews by the Global Forum, in particular the 11 jurisdictions identified by the Global Forum whose framework has failed to qualify. We underline the importance of comprehensive tax information exchange, and encourage work in the Global Forum to define the means to improve it. We welcome the commitment made by all of us to sign the Multilateral Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, and strongly encourage other jurisdictions to join this Convention.

Addressing commodity price volatility and promoting agriculture

18. As part of our financial regulation agenda, we endorse the IOSCO recommendations to improve regulation and supervision of commodity derivatives markets. We agree that market regulators should be granted effective intervention powers to prevent market abuses. In particular, market regulators should have and use formal position management powers, among other powers of intervention, including the power to set ex-ante position limits, as appropriate.

19. Promoting agricultural production is key to feeding the world population. To that end, we decide to act in the framework of the Action Plan on Food Price Volatility and Agriculture agreed by our Ministers of Agriculture in June 2011. In particular, we decide to invest in and support research and development of agriculture productivity. We have launched the “Agricultural Market Information System” (AMIS) to reinforce transparency on agricultural products’ markets. To improve food security, we commit to developing appropriate risk-management instruments and humanitarian emergency tools. We decide that food purchased for non-commercial humanitarian purposes by the World Food Programme will not be subject to export restrictions or extraordinary taxes. We welcome the creation of a “Rapid Response Forum”, to improve the international community’s capacity to coordinate policies and develop common responses in time of market crises.

Reforming global governance for the 21st century

30. We welcome the report of UK Prime Minister David Cameron on global governance. We agree that the G20 should remain an informal group. We decide to formalise the Troika. We will pursue consistent and effective engagement with non-members, including the UN and we welcome their contributions to our work.

31. We reaffirm that the G20’s founding spirit of bringing together the major economies on an equal footing to catalyse action is fundamental and therefore agree to put our collective political will behind our economic and financial agenda, and the reform and more effective working of relevant international institutions. We support reforms to be implemented within the FAO and the FSB We have committed to strengthen our multilateral trade framework. We call on international organisations, especially the UN, WTO, the ILO, the WB, the IMF and the OECD, to enhance their dialogue and cooperation, including on the social impact of economic policies, and to intensify their coordination.

On December 1st 2011, Mexico will start chairing the G20. We will convene in Los Cabos, Baja California, in June 2012, under the Chairmanship of Mexico. Russia will chair the G20 in 2013, Australia in 2014 and Turkey in 2015. We have also agreed, as part of our reforms to the G20, that after 2015, annual presidencies of the G20 will be chosen from rotating regional groups, starting with the Asian grouping comprising China, Indonesia, Japan and Korea.

Full Communiqué

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