WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday he will set out principles for a new global accord to constrain the excessive use of leverage by banks.
Speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday and Saturday in London of G20 finance chiefs, he emphasized he was not seeking an immediate agreement and said it was too soon to clamp down on the financial sector as it struggles to return to normal lending.
"We're going to be outlining a framework of principles to begin a discussion -- not to reach agreement on -- but to discuss a framework of principles on a new international capital accord that will put in place, once the crisis is behind us, a more conservative framework of constraints on leverage in the financial sector across the major globally active financial institutions," Geithner told reporters. (Reporting by Glenn Somerville and Emily Kaiser; Editing by Neil Stempleman)