IQALUIT, Canada (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner insisted on Saturday that major economies were not easing up on their commitment to stiffen the rules for banks just because the global economy was recovering.

“We all share a deep commitment to try to move forward and reach agreement on a strong, comprehensive set of financial reforms on the timetable we all committed to last September,” he said at a closing press conference following a meeting of Group of Seven finance chiefs.

“That means agreement on … a new set of capital requirements for large global institutions by the end of this year,” he added, playing down the possibility that the Obama administration might be headed in a different direction from other governments.

President Barack Obama has additional rules that would limit proprietary trading by banks, put them out of the hedge fund and private equity business and limit their future growth through a new market share cap.

Iqaluit, Canada (Reuters) – Wind-whipped snow eddies dance across the aptly named Road to Nowhere on the outskirts of Arctic Iqaluit, and the mood is definitely mixed as locals await finance ministers from the world’s rich nations.

“As far as I’m concerned it’s a PR stunt for you guys,” one man said dismissively outside North Mart, one of two large food stores in the northern Canadian town of 6,000. “They won’t be leaving no money here.”

It is an unusual place to bring finance ministers and central bank chiefs from Canada, Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Italy and Japan and it’s true they won’t have much time to shop. Most arrive on Friday ahead of an opening dinner, and they will be gone by Saturday night after a working session that ends by early afternoon.

But some locals are glad to see the visitors, if only because they hope a trip up north — Iqaluit is only 300 km (200 miles south of the Arctic Circle — will help the outside world understand northern life better.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration is prepared to impose fees on financial firms for as long as necessary to ensure that every cent spent on bailing out banks is repaid, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

A proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility fee that is projected to raise $90 billion over 10 years could be extended if the cost of the bailout exceeds that amount, Geithner said in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee.

“The fee can and will be extended until every penny of taxpayer assistance to the financial system has been repaid and the cost of the rescue to taxpayers is zero,” Geithner said.

He told the committee that soaring budget deficits must be wrestled down to protect the country’s economic future, but warned that doing so too quickly would risk a return to recession.

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (Reuters) – The Obama administration is prepared to impose fees on financial firms for as long as necessary to ensure that every cent spent on bailing out banks is repaid, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday.

A proposed Financial Crisis Responsibility fee that is projected to raise $90 billion over 10 years could be extended if the cost of the bailout exceeds that amount, Geithner said in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee.

“The fee can and will be extended until every penny of taxpayer assistance to the financial system has been repaid and the cost of the rescue to taxpayers is zero,” Geithner said.

He told the committee that soaring budget deficits must be wrestled down to protect the country’s economic future, but warned that doing so too quickly would risk a return to recession.

MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner joined other Obama administration officials on Thursday who fanned out across the country to talk up prospects for brighter hiring prospects as recovery sets in.

“The economy is beginning to heal,” Geithner said after meeting a group of local businessmen and politicians at a Honeywell International plant here.

“We have made a lot of progress over the last year in breaking the back of one of the worst recessions in generations,” he said, adding “the momentum of job loss” was easing.

A day after President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address made jobs his top priority, Geithner said the administration wants to work with Congress to put in place a job creation program that would offer tax incentives for hiring and tax cuts for clean energy investments, among other measures.

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan 28 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner joined other Obama administration officials on Thursday who fanned out across the country to talk up prospects for brighter hiring prospects as recovery sets in.

“The economy is beginning to heal,” Geithner said after meeting a group of local businessmen and politicians at a Honeywell International <HON.N> plant here.

“We have made a lot of progress over the last year in breaking the back of one of the worst recessions in generations,” he said, adding “the momentum of job loss” was easing.

A day after President Barack Obama in his State of the Union address made jobs his top priority, Geithner said the administration wants to work with Congress to put in place a job creation program that would offer tax incentives for hiring and tax cuts for clean energy investments, among other measures.

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) – U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday challenged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s credibility after he said he was not involved in AIG’s decision to withhold details on $62 billion the bailed-out insurer paid to banks.

Geithner held his ground at a hearing, however, insisting the government-funded rescue which cost more than $180 billion had been necessary to avert an economic collapse.

Big taxpayer-funded bailouts for AIG and other financial institutions at a time of soaring unemployment have angered voters. Economic worries helped put a Republican into a Senate seat long-held by Democrats in Massachusetts last week, serving notice to lawmakers facing reelection in November.

“Why shouldn’t we ask for your resignation as secretary of the Treasury?” Florida Republican John Mica demanded. “I think you’re punting the blame … I believe we’re not getting the whole story.”

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner flatly denied any role in counseling American International Group to keep quiet about payments it made to leading banks during a 2008 rescue of the stricken insurer.

Geithner faces a grilling on Wednesday before the House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee, whose chairman has complained that taxpayer funds were fed through AIG in what amounted to a “backdoor bailout” of big banks.

A committee member made Geithner’s prepared testimony to the committee available on Tuesday night.

In the remarks, Geithner said he was not involved in decisions about payments to banks that were counterparties for credit default swaps written by AIG that they were able to exit at 100 cents on the dollar at the height of the financial crisis.

WASHINGTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner flatly denied any role in counseling American International Group <AIG.N> to keep quiet about payments it made to leading banks during a 2008 rescue of the stricken insurer.

Geithner faces a grilling on Wednesday before the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee, whose chairman has complained that taxpayer funds were fed through AIG in what amounted to a “backdoor bailout” of big banks.

A committee member made Geithner’s prepared testimony to the committee available on Tuesday night.

In the remarks, Geithner said he was not involved in decisions about payments to banks that were counterparties for credit default swaps written by AIG that they were able to exit at 100 cents on the dollar at the height of the financial crisis.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The loss of a key Democratic Senate seat will likely strengthen the resolve of President Barack Obama to press ahead urgently with a package of targeted proposals to spur U.S. job creation.

Sending shockwaves through the Obama White House, Republican Scott Brown emerged the winner in Tuesday’s special U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, a state staunchly in the camp of Obama’s Democrats.

The loss imperils Obama’s drive to pass healthcare reform by depriving Democrats of a crucial 60th Senate vote. But the setback could be the impetus for popular job growth ideas Republicans would be reluctant to challenge.

The ideas, such as tax credits for business hiring, aid to cash-strapped states and an extension of unemployment benefits, are as American as baseball and apple pie.