March 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner testifies about the need for legislators to pass new regulations for the financial markets.

Geithner, testifying before the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, also discusses the Public-Private Investment Plan which is designed to eradicate so-called toxic assets from bank balance sheets and the proposal to grant regulators broader authority to avoid future market turmoil. (This is part one of the question-and-answer portion of the hearing. Source: Bloomberg)

00:00:00 Representatives make opening statements. 00:19:50 Geithner makes opening remarks. 00:21:50 "New rules of the game" needed to regulate 00:25:40 Avoiding systemic risk, proposed regulations 00:28:25 Questions: Why Treasury needs more authority? 00:34:20 Purpose of 6-to-1 ratio rule; market outlook 00:43:50 "Moment of opportunity" to fix regulations 00:47:35 Stress-test process; authority of FDIC 00:52:40 Market concerns of PPIP; auction process 01:02:30 Significance of small banks for economy 01:04:20 Disparity of small to larger banks, outlook 01:06:30 Some failures to cause "catastrophic damage" 01:11:22 Banning derivatives: "terribly hard to do" 01:20:40 Benefit of plan for U.S. taxpayers

Running time 01:25:08

-0- Mar/26/2009 16:47 GMT

Last Updated: March 26, 2009 12:47 EDT