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By Lizzie O’Leary 
March 29 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called on Latin American and Caribbean countries to help revive global growth by safeguarding free trade and stimulating their economies through “all available tools.” The U.S. and other nations “need to affirm our commitment to maintain open policies toward international trade and investment and to avoid protectionist measures that could threaten recovery,” Geithner said today at the Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Medellin, Colombia. He called on “international institutions” to quickly provide aid. The IDB, a Washington-based lender to Caribbean and Latin American nations, is seeking to nearly triple its capital, with $180 billion in new funding from its member countries, said Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. A former Peruvian finance minister, he is leading an outside panel evaluating a capital increase. The proposed increase, about 4 percent of which would be paid in cash over several years, could sustain annual lending of $15 billion, Kuczynski said at the bank’s annual meeting in Medellin. The IDB, the region’s largest development lender, wants to approve loans for $17 billion in 2009, up from 2008’s record $11.1 billion, he said. “We will listen to your proposals with an open mind,” Geithner said in his speech. “This is a time for the world to come together.” President Barack Obama plans to discuss the need for stronger global financial regulation at the summit of Group of 20 leaders in London on April 2. Geithner last week called for more international coordination, alongside his proposals for strengthening U.S. regulation of large, complex financial institutions. Substantial Aid Geithner said before leaving for Colombia that some U.S. financial institutions will need substantial government aid, while warning against any attempt to tax investors who join a federal program to buy tainted assets from banks. “Some banks are going to need some large amounts of assistance,” Geithner said on the ABC News program “This Week.” The terms of a $500 billion public-private program to aid banks “cannot change” for investors or they’ll lose confidence in the plan, he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Geithner last week proposed bringing large hedge funds, private-equity firms and derivatives markets under federal supervision for the first time. A new systemic risk regulator would have powers to force companies to boost their capital or curtail borrowing, and government officials would get the authority to seize such firms if they run into trouble. Main Agencies The Treasury and FDIC would be the main agencies that handle the resolution of the systemically important financial companies that aren’t banks. The plan uses procedures similar to the way the FDIC handles bank failures, without tapping the Deposit Insurance Fund used to safeguard bank deposits. Geithner also unveiled last week his strategy for helping banks remove toxic assets from their balance sheets, using a combination of public financing and private investment. The announcement of the plan boosted stock prices and lifted the credit markets, although some investors wondered how long that enthusiasm would last if the process takes months to set up. To contact the reporters on this story: Lizzie O’Leary in Medellin at
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