Rushing to rescue Citigroup, the U.S. government agreed to shoulder hundreds of billions in possible losses and to plow a fresh US$20 billion into the stricken bank. "It would create chaos," said Winson Fong, managing director at SG Asset Management in Hong Kong, which oversees about $3 billion in equities in Asia. "Simply put, you couldn't borrow or lend for a while. This is a nightmare scenario."

Key issues agreed by world leaders at this summit included: reform of international financial institutions, a global free-trade deal, improvements to financial market transparency, banks and financial institutions' incentives "prevent excessive risk taking," to draw up a list of financial institutions whose collapse would endanger the global economic system, strengthening countries' financial regulatory regimes and taking a "fresh look" at rules that govern market manipulation and fraud.