British PM demands honesty from bankers

British prime minister Gordon Brown, who is in New York on a pre-G20 mission, demanded bankers to apply honesty and integrity in financial dealings. He said that world leaders have to reach a consensus on new international standards governing banking.

Brown was addressing a special gathering of business leaders including top executives of Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq and Goldman Sachs, hosted by the Wall Street Journal's editor-in-chief Robert Thomson.

''There is a sense that the global economy was outside these standards that we applied in our everyday lives… a world without standards is going to be a world without stability'' he said.

''Markets depend on morality in the end,'' he said. ''We are building for the first time not just a global economy but a global society.''

Brown is on a trip to Europe and Americas prior to the G20 summit scheduled in London on 2 April.

Brown was warned at home on Tuesday by Bank of England governor Mervyn King against a new fiscal stimulus package to boost the ailing economy as the fiscal position of the country is unenviable. The country is already facing a staggering deficit of 11 per cent of GDP in 2010 compared to the G20 average of 6.3 per cent.