Christine Lagarde, French finance minister, and Peer Steinbrück, her German counterpart, said they wanted leaders meeting at the G20 summit on April 2 to sign up to the idea that banks and insurers should be forced to disclose their use of tax and regulatory havens in their annual regulatory filings.
They would have to provide regulators with general information about the size and nature of their transactions with these jurisdictions, data that could be used to trigger higher capital requirements.
The move is the latest attempt to set the agenda for the G20 summit in London, amid fears in the French and German capitals that the meeting might fail to grasp the nettle of tighter financial regulation.