London, Dec 10 (IANS) British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy Thursday jointly called for urgent reforms to the global financial market in what was described as a rapprochement following a diplomat spat.
The two leaders, writing jointly in the Wall Street Journal, called for “a new compact between global banks and the society they serve”.

“A compact that ensures the benefits of good economic times flow not just to bankers but to the people they serve; that makes sure that the financial sector fosters economic growth.”

They said a one-off tax on high bonuses paid to bankers “should be considered a priority”.

“People rightly want a post-crisis banking system which puts their needs first. To achieve that, nothing less than a global change is required,” they wrote.

Sarkozy and Brown say the financial crisis has made them “recognise that we are now in an economy which is no longer national but global, so financial standards must also be global”.

“We must ensure that, through proper regulation, the financial sector operates on a level playing field globally.”

Sarkozy had told Le Monde newspaper recently that the British were “the big losers” in the share-out of European Union jobs after former French agriculture minister Michel Barnier was given the role of supervising Europe’s internal market for financial services, most of which is in the City of London.

The two have also differed strongly in the past over the issue of bankers’ bonuses, with the British taking a much more hands-off approach and the French favouring a crack-down.

But British Finance Minister Alistair Darling Wednesday announced a one-off ‘supertax’ on bankers’ bonuses amid mounting criticism of banks who have used their public bailout funds to make hefty payments to senior executives.