The meeting of G20 finance ministers, held in Washington, wrapped up on Friday with no agreement being reached on the IMF's recommendations for the introduction of two new taxes on the global banking industry. This came as US senators prepared to spend the weekend arguing over the financial regulatory reform bill being pushed by the Obama administration. The conveniently timed pressing of fraud charges against Goldman Sachs by the SEC provided the urgency necessary to get most senators focused on the need for reform and generally speaking with common purpose. On Sunday there was talk that the senators may be ready to vote on the bill on the Monday. But then again that may be very optimistic.In the lead up to the G20 meeting, the IMF released its report, 'A Fair and Substantial Contribution by the Financial Sector'. The report was prepared at the request of the G20 finance ministers at their last meeting in September. The report proposed that the world's largest banks should be levied to fund future bank bail-outs and that a further tax should be levied on profits to repay bail-out funds already provided.The proposal was rejected at the G20 meeting, even though the finance ministers of Europe and the United States were in favour. Generally, it was the finance minsters of those countries whose banks got into difficulty that were in favour of the proposal, while finance ministers of countries whose banks were relatively unscathed were against. Canada and the BRICs were in the latter camp.The G20 finance ministers asked the IMF to do more work to ensure that banks will bear the burden of financial rescues; address excessive risk taking; and promote a level playing field. However, at the same time, the IMF will need to take into consideration the circumstances of individual countries to ensure that banks that performed well during the GFC are not punished for the mistakes of others.The IMF is required to report back on this impossible task at the next meeting of the finance ministers in June. In the meantime, the US said it would press on with its regulatory reforms, including a levy on its largest banks, regardless.The G20 finance ministers also reiterated the need for the urgent development of standards for the central clearing of derivative trades and removing such trading from over the counter. Central clearing will remove counterparty risk and avoid the chaos that came with the near collapse of AIG.