Geithner's NYU speech focuses on cutting red tape

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is pledging to move with speed to implement the biggest overhaul of the financial system since the Great Depression. He says that a top priority will be simplifying the complicated forms that consumers have to fill out to get credit cards, auto loans and mortgages.

Geithner's comments came Monday in a speech to Wall Street executives and students at New York University's Stern School of Business. The speech was the opening salvo in what the administration says will be an extensive outreach effort to educate the public about the new law.

Geithner urged financial companies to improve their lending, risk management and executive pay policies immediately.

"Don't wait for Washington to draft every rule before you start changing how you do business," he said. "Focus on improving your financial position so that your financial ratings, your cost of capital, the amount you have to pay to borrow, all reflect your own financial strength and earnings prospects, not the false expectation that the government will be there in the future to rescue you."

Geithner added that international regulators are working on making sure financial firms hold much more capital than they did before the financial crisis that shook the economy to the brink. Global regulators are working on having banks hold more capital against risky trading activities, he said, adding that big banks would need to hold more capital than smaller firms.

- Combined news services