LONDON Bloomberg) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain doesn't need to adopt President Barack Obama's initiative to rein in banks, adding that his own transaction-tax plan would reduce the chance of another financial crisis.

Obama's January 21 proposal prohibiting banks from owning or making investments in private-equity and hedge funds that "are unrelated to serving customers" has had a mixed reception in Britain, with the opposition Conservatives welcoming it.

"In the American circumstances, it may be necessary for the private-equity and hedge-fund work to be separated," Brown told reporters in London yesterday. "We don't have that issue here."

Rejecting suggestions from the Conservatives that Obama's proposals left Brown "isolated," the prime minister said US plans for a levy on banks were in line with his own suggestion last year of transaction tax. "You will probably see further moves to get international agreement about some international levy," he said.

Treasury Minister Paul Myners, who's chairing a meeting with counterparts from the Group of Seven leading economies yesterday to discuss regulation, said banks should shoulder responsibility for potential losses.

"It is important that any costs that governments incur for interventions in the financial sector are distributed more fairly," Myners said as he opened the meeting in London, which was also attended by representatives of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. "There is clearly a strong rationale to charge for the externality caused by the financial sector, and financial institutions should shoulder the responsibilities for losses they may face."