How is G20 doing on 2008 pledges ahead of summit

Leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers will deliver this week on some of the promises they made at a Washington summit in November, a draft statement showed, but they will fall short of completing a major overhaul of the world economy.

Their April 2 summit in London should be able to produce a lot more money for the International Monetary Fund, promise to give major emerging economies far more say in international policy-making and enable regulators to supervise hedge funds and credit ratings agencies, as well as crackdown on tax havens.

However, the leaders have yet to work out how to set up global supervision for global banks or to agree any specifics on how much governments need to spend.

Here is a summary of progress reported so far on pledges the leaders made in Washington in November.

* FISCAL MEASURES TO BOOST DEMAND RAPIDLY

- Most G20 economies have introduced stimulus measures to boost demand.

- U.S. calls for a bigger, coordinated effort have been repeatedly rebuffed by European Union leaders who say Europe's social welfare nets will automatically give an extra boost to consumer and corporate demand for goods and services.

- Within the EU, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has backed the U.S. calls. But he has run into opposition at home from Bank of England governor Mervyn King, who urged caution over the UK's ballooning budget deficit.

* MONETARY POLICY STEPS AS APPROPRIATE

- Central banks have cooperated in setting up swap lines to help each other's banks and those in emerging economies to get the foreign currency they need to avert crises.

- Early on in the crisis, major central banks announced coordinated rate cuts. Since then approaches have diverged.

- While some G20 countries still have scope to cut benchmark rates, major central banks including the U.S. Federal Reserve and Bank of England have taken rates close to zero and moved on to quantitative easing methods, such as buying corporate or government debt to get money into the economy.

- The European Central Bank with its strong focus on fighting inflation has been more cautious. ECB policymakers are considering possible steps but have said they do not see deflation as a threat in the euro zone.

- The Swiss National Bank combined a rate cut with intervention on the markets in March to weaken its currency and fight deflation. Switzerland is not a G20 member and that move attracted little controversy. However, some euro zone countries criticized Britain for not intervening when the pound plunged late last year, making UK goods more competitively priced.

- Major U.S. creditors Russia and China have raised another concern, suggesting Washington's spending surge is weakening the dollar's appeal as the world's main reserve currency.

* MORE FUNDS FOR THE IMF TO SUPPORT EMERGING ECONOMIES

- G20 leaders are expected to agree on a significant increase in the IMF's arsenal but which countries will pay and how much is still being negotiated.

- The United States, which has indicated it is willing to give up to $100 billion to the IMF, has said there should be $500 billion in new funds on top of $250 billion the IMF already has.

- However, European officials say they support at least a doubling of IMF resources, and when questioned said that would require additional contributions of about $150 billion. Together with $100 billion pledged by Japan earlier this year, that would make a total $500 billion.

- The European Union has pledged more than $100 billion in new loans for the IMF ahead of the summit.

- There are still questions over whether emerging market powers will contribute, with China saying it will not give additional funding to the IMF until its voting power within the institution is increased.

- Europe and the United States could foot the bill without China, but they are not keen to do this because they want everybody to chip in.

* NO RAISING OF TRADE BARRIERS OVER THE NEXT 12 MONTHS

- Since November 15 many countries inside and outside the World Trade Organization have done just the opposite. Eighteen of the G20 economies are named in a World Trade Organization (WTO) report on measures taken in recent months that could be seen as restricting trade.

- The European Union revived subsidies on exports of dairy produce; Russia has announced plans to introduce new duties on imported cars; and India raised import tariffs on steel.

- The United States has been criticized for including a "Buy American" clause as a condition for some of the government's support.

- Other G20 countries named by the WTO as imposing trade-restricting policies since the onset of the financial crisis in September 2008 include Indonesia, Argentina and South Korea. However, some including China had also taken steps to encourage trade, the WTO said.

- The G20 failed within weeks to meet one Washington summit goal: a breakthrough for a new trade deal by the end of 2008. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy decided against calling trade ministers for talks because countries were not showing enough will to narrow their differences.

* REFORM OF BRETTON WOODS INSTITUTIONS

- The summit is set to formalize a relatively quick win in bringing all the G20 into the Financial Stability Forum, formerly dominated by the older economies.

- It is also likely to accelerate reform of the IMF, including ending the tradition that the EU picks the head of the IMF and the U.S. the head of the World Bank.

* REGULATORY OVERHAUL

- The Washington meeting called for a review of accountancy standards, CEO pay, bankruptcy rules, credit rating agencies and central clearing of credit default swaps; and global supervision of big banks.

- An announcement on Tuesday by a G20 working group hinted at some movement on obliging banks to build up reserves for difficult times, but otherwise varied little from the broad principles adopted in November.

- Euro zone countries are particularly keen to tighten regulation, blaming the global crisis largely on the 'light touch' U.S. and UK attitudes to regulating banks.

- Industry players welcomed some proposals for tightening rules at an EU-level -- for example for stricter capital requirements on banks -- but others have been disappointed that there is no drive for a tough, unified pan-European regime.

- Britain has called instead for a global solution but efforts so far are either national or regional.

-- So far no visible progress on G20 goal of setting up colleges of supervisors for each big multinational bank to coordinate oversight better. EU leaders have backed creating a new bloc-wide council to monitor systemic risks from bank and United States mulling something similar.

-- Some progress on accountancy standards after aspects of "fair value" or "mark to market" rules in the EU and United States were relaxed. Further guidelines on how to apply fair value rules have been proposed in the United States.

-- Good progress on moving to central clearing of credit default swaps which has begun in the United States with regulatory approval for ICE and CME. Dealers in the EU have agreed to centrally clear European contracts from the end of July.

-- On bankers' pay and bonuses, the United States is introducing a cap on banks that receive public money. The EU will come out with guidelines for member states on remuneration in banks on April 21. France plans a law to limit executive bonuses in the form of stock options or shares.

-- Separately the EU is looking to amend the bloc's bank capital rules so that supervisors can impose sanctions on bank's whose remuneration packages encourage excessive risk taking.

-- On credit rating agencies, EU states have reached a preliminary deal on mandatory registration and supervision of the sector. A final deal is expected to be adopted in April. The United States have a voluntary registration system and introduced more rules last December.

* REMAIN COMMITTED TO COMBATING CLIMATE CHANGE

- U.N. negotiators are meeting in Bonn, Germany, from March 29-April 8 as part of marathon two-year talks on a new U.N. climate pact meant to be agreed by the end of 2009. But the financial crisis has taken away much of the impetus.

- Greenhouse gas emissions are likely to be falling in many countries because of recession. The European Union in December approved a plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 only after concessions to several member states. U.S. President Barack Obama looks unlikely to win Senate approval by the end of 2009 for his goal of cutting emissions back to 1990 levels by 2020. Industrialized nations including Japan and Russia have not even announced 2020 goals.

- Developing nations accuse the rich of failing to promise enough new clean energy technology or aid to help them adapt to impacts of warming such as floods or rising seas.

(Reporting by Reuters G20 bureaus; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)