Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for a meeting with Bank of England Governor Mervyn King and finance chiefs to discuss banking reforms following the G20 summit. At the summit, Mr Brown unveiled a global Financial Stability Board to oversee supervision of the banks and published international proposals linking bonuses to long-term performance. He also declared "the era of banking secrecy over" in a proposed crackdown on illegal tax evasion through offshore shelters. World leaders including President Barack Obama and China’s Hu Jintao agreed to impose tighter controls on banks and hedge funds and to require institutions to set money aside for bad times. Brown, who enjoyed a popularity boost in a poll conducted after he hosted the G-20 summit in London, wants to act on the promises made there to curb the recession in the U.K.

Putting aside their apparent differences over financial stimulus package, King and Brown – along with FSA chief, Adair Turner – agreed that overhauling the system is “an urgent priority” and that Britain will “take the lead,” a spokesman for Brown said today. Bankers will also be asked to take regulatory plans into account in managing their own businesses, he said.

Mr King and Financial Services Authority chairman Lord Turner will join the PM and Chancellor Alistair Darling in Downing Street to discuss the way forward. A government spokesman said the meeting would "help to ensure that the new regulation and supervision agreed at the summit is effected in Britain so that people can have confidence in the banks, and that British companies can access the trade finance that is being made available. Downing Street said the PM was "clear that the consensus reached at the G20 last week will make a difference to the lives and to the aspirations of families and businesses in the UK".

"We have got to make sure that all this new regulation and supervision is effected in Britain,” Mr Brown commented, adding: “We have got to make sure that the tax havens that have got some relationship with Britain are conducting their affairs in such a way to justify the decisions that we made at the G20 that change is going to happen."