Yellen to meet with global regulators on banking turmoil

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to tell financial regulators gathered in Washington this week that the U.S. banking system is on solid ground despite a string of failures that rattled global markets, a department official said Monday.

The banking turmoil is just one of several big priorities that Treasury outlined in Yellen's agenda for the IMF-World Bank spring meetings, which begin Monday.

Yellen will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m., Tuesday, amid meetings with world leaders related to bolstering the global economy, revamping the World Bank and similar institutions, pushing for World Bank nominee Ajay Banga, rallying allies on Russia sanctions and tackling the indebtedness of developing countries.

On financial stability, a senior Treasury official told reporters that "our message has been and will continue to be we think the U.S. banking system is strong and sound." The official said not to expect a big announcement on the topic.

Yellen's meetings include discussions with Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and European Commissioner for financial services Mairead McGuinness on Friday. She plans to host a working dinner of G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors on Wednesday.

"There have been a couple issues at a handful of banks, but we think overall the system is quite strong," the senior Treasury official said. "If you compare things to 15 years ago, the banking system is clearly better regulated, better capitalized, more liquid than it was prior to the global financial crisis, and that's why we don't think you're seeing broad spillovers in the way you did in the past."