(Corrects first name of ICFR chief executive in paragraph 5)
SEOUL, Nov 10 (Reuters) - The Group of 20 leading economies could lose focus on improving global financial regulation as domestic policy concerns move centre stage at a leaders' summit, a financial think-tank warned on Wednesday.
The G20 has set itself a comprehensive agenda to improve regulation following the global financial crisis. But a survey of bankers, accountants and regulators by the International Centre for Financial Regulation (ICFR) at its meeting in Amsterdam found strong fears that those reforms may be put on the back burner at the summit, which begins in Seoul on Thursday.
The poll found 94 percent of participants at the Amsterdam event feared the the G20 could fail to make progress on its goals, as domestic considerations move back centrestage.
The ICFR said as a result it was urging G20 leaders in Seoul to prioritise more effective cross-border co-ordination by supervisors, and for agreement on a way forward on crisis resolution to allow for the orderly wind-down of complex banks that were most effective in improving financial stability and most likely to be implemented internationally.
"While these issues aren't prominent on domestic political agendas, they are in fact vital to making the next crisis more manageable," said International Centre for Financial Regulation chief executive Barbara Ridpath.
"That's why substantive progress needs to be made in Seoul before momentum is lost," she said.
The sentiment was echoed by India Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who warned the Group of 20 must not be complacent in its efforts to set up a strong financial regulatory framework.
"In the financial sector, we should build upon the process of IMF reform on which good progress was made last month at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting," Singh said in a statement before leaving for the G20 summit at Seoul.
The G20 leaders were expected to sign off on the Basel III bank capital rules at their meeting this week as well as a series of agreements to improve regulation of the derivatives market and reduce reliance on credit ratings.
But they are yet to finalise measures on how to regulate global "systemically important financial institutions" and deal with the cross-border fallout when such a bank fails. (Reporting by Rachel Armstrong and Manoj Kumar; Editing by Alex Richardson)