What happened at the G20, IMF meetings in Washington

EURO ZONE CRISIS

Countries that share the euro said their 440 billion-euro ($384.5 billion) rescue fund could be bolstered to maximize its impact. A senior European Union official hinted it could be increased five-fold but others said it was too soon to be talking about numbers.

The head of the fund and top ECB officials said it would be inappropriate for the European Central Bank to participate in the leveraging. The United States and the IMF have urged the ECB to use its firepower to bolster the fund.

GREECE

The IMF said EU/IMF inspectors were likely to return this week to Athens to hammer out the conditions for the payment of an 8 billion-euro aid tranche needed to keep Greece from default, after Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos held talks with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Sunday.

A Greek official said the fund had insisted on a written document outlining measures recently announced by Athens to put its IMF lending program back on track.

FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS TAX TO HELP DEVELOPMENT

The G20 was split over a proposal for a financial transactions tax, which G20 president France says could be used to fund aid spending in the developing world.

A report by the Gates Foundation found the tax was feasible but it failed to garner much support within the group, aside from France and Germany. A meeting of G20 finance and development ministers agreed to support a project for a food reserve in West Africa to help avert famines in one of the world’s poorest regions.

BANKERS GET COLD SHOULDER FROM REGULATORS ON REFORMS

An aggressive push by major banks to scale back or postpone new capital rules met with little sympathy from international regulators who are set to finalize these standards in the coming weeks.

BRICS

The group of five leading emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — that has banded together to increase their global clout struggled to find common ground. This time, a proposal from Brazil to find ways to support the euro zone failed to muster support within the group.

RUSSIAN FINANCE MINISTER BOWS OUT

Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, the longest serving finance minister in the Group of Eight, told reporters in Washington that he had ruled out taking a job in Russia’s next government. Kudrin cited irreconcilable policy differences with President Dmitry Medvedev, who is likely to become premier in a job swap with Vladimir Putin. Kudrin has won the respect of investors for his hawkish fiscal stance and decision to save windfall oil revenues in a rainy-day fund.