The Obama administration's financial-overhaul plan includes numerous proposals to stabilize global markets during future financial crises.

More goals than mandates, the suggestions are aimed both at international governing bodies and individual foreign countries. The proposals often echo commitments recently made at the Group of 20 meeting in London last spring.

The suggestions focus largely on making international banks more stable. They also call for supervising major multinational companies and developing methods to cope with cross-border financial crises.

It also seeks clear, simple guidelines for some of the complex financial transactions that prompted the international meltdown, like the use of credit derivatives, contracts that propose to help protect the holder against risk.

President Barack Obama released his regulatory plan, "Financial Regulatory Reform: A New Foundation," at a White House event Wednesday. Many key recommendations will require Congress to act.

The administration hopes to encourage international banks to build up a larger reserve of capital during good economic times to cushion them in downturns. To this end, the Obama plan recommends that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision develop a better set of guidelines for how banks handle their capital and exposure to risk.

On international oversight, the plan proposes to standardize the international use of complex instruments like credit derivatives and regulate over-the-counter derivatives, which are typically traded through informal dealer networks.

The biggest global financial institutions would also receive more scrutiny through "supervisory colleges," which regulate the 30 most significant firms and share information.

Countries are encouraged to tighten their oversight of credit rating agencies and pare down the number of conflicts of interest.

To improve crisis management, the administration urges the Basel Committee to work with countries to improve responses to cross-border crises, like the failure of a major multi-national financial institution.

Stronger standards for capital, liquidity and risk management would apply to foreign financial institutions that either have branches that operate in the U.S. or affect the U.S. market. The plan proposes to permit the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to determine these new requirements.

Countries are encouraged to implement stricter disclosure requirements for hedge funds. Adding to the G-20 recommendation, the Obama plan also urges advisers to venture capital and other private pools of capital to register and disclose their record-keeping.

The plan also calls for strengthening the Financial Stability Board, recently revived by the Group of 20 at its London meeting. In addition, the Obama plan urges countries to make better compensation guidelines to control risk taking.

Following a G-20 recommendation, countries are urged to impose tougher money-laundering standards and do a better job exchanging tax information. Finally, the administration recommends simplifying international accounting guidelines and working to create "a single set of high quality global accounting standards."

-By Kristina Peterson, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6619; kristina.peterson@dowjones.com