Bankers and regulators should learn the lessons of the global financial crisis and drive through changes to prevent future breakdowns, financiers said on Friday.

Bundesbank President Axel Weber said regulators must be resolute about pressing ahead with reform and reject criticism for perceived over-regulation as markets start recovering.

We don't give a damn what anyone says, because we will just implement it, he told a Frankfurt banking conference.

It is very important for us not to fall prey to influences on the way up or down

We have to turn very stubborn. We have seen the biggest crisis in post-war history and make the system more resilient, said Weber, who also sits on the European Central Bank's policymaking Governing Council.

The worst financial crisis in 80 years, which started with the crash of Lehman Brothers in 2008, has sparked calls for a radical overhaul of banking supervision, which is still country-based despite cross-border groups dominating the sector.

Since the start of the crisis last year, politicians, shareholders and regulators have sought someone to blame for the breakdown that led governments to pour funds into stimulus packages and bank bailouts.

Deutsche Bank Chief Executive Josef Ackermann told the same conference that all parties need to learn from the crisis to help prevent future financial bubbles.

We do not seem to have made much progress identifying financial bubbles since the Dutch tulip crisis, Ackermann said, referring to the 17th century Dutch craze.

THE BLAME-GAME

Momentum has been building in the United States to break up lenders that are not only too big to fail but which may be too big to save, but others, including Ackermann, have stressed that there is still a role for large banks.

The goal of shrinking firms is to prevent another debacle like the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the huge taxpayer bailouts of AIG and Citigroup in the United States as well as Hypo Real Estate, Royal Bank of Scotland and ABN Amro in Europe.

Banks have also faced public anger for paying eye-popping bonuses amid a crisis that has required billions of euros in taxpayer money for bailouts.

Ackermann, who has backed the creation of an international bailout fund, said the state would have to be involved in such as fund because the resources required were so great.

His remarks stood in contrast to comments by European Central Bank executive board member Juergen Stark this week.

We must not add new incentives for moral hazard by creating an 'emergency fund' for banks, financed or co-financed by taxpayers' money, Starck said.

Weber cautioned that learning the lessons of the crisis will not guarantee that future crises can be averted, but it will help cope with them better.

We cannot prevent and predict the next crisis. We have to make sure when the next crisis comes, and it will come with a 100 percent probability at some time, that the system then is more resilient and that's what systemic supervision is about, he said.

(Writing by Maria Sheahan; Editing by David Cowell)

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