Finance ministers from wealthy and developing countries have agreed on the need for an urgent clean-up of banking systems in developed countries, if there's to be an economic recovery worldwide.
The agreement came at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank in Washington, where the IMF director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, says there's been progress on the issue.
But he says it's been too slow.
The meeting also heard calls for more help for African countries feeling the effects of the global crisis.
Tanzania's finance minister said the slump threatened to wipe out his country's previous gains and that rich countries should use part of their stimulus resources to help poorer ones.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said no one at the meeting had challenged the view that reform was needed.
"I think everybody again agrees that we need to do it now and that recovery is heavily relying on that," he said.
Mr Strauss-Kahn said all the minister present would "go back committed to speeding up the process" of such reforms.
