Speaking to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. today, US Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson, Jr., discussed the recommendations from the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets designed to deal with the lessons of the credit crunch.

The PWG is recommending a variety of changes for mortgage originators and brokers, credit rating agencies, financial institutions, and various aspects of the securitization business. Paulson said the recommendations have six basic objectives, improvements to: transparency and disclosure, risk awareness, risk management, capital management, regulatory policies, and market infrastructure.

“No silver bullet exists to prevent past excesses from recurring. In these remarks, I have focused a great deal on challenges related to excessive complexity, but complexity is only one of many issues we face. I believe today’s recommendations put us on the path towards more transparent, better-functioning, and better-managed markets, which are integral to attracting and allocating capital to fuel our economic growth and prosperity. We will continue to re-assess conditions, monitor progress, put forward new recommendations and take additional steps as necessary,” he concluded.

In addition to the various recommendations, he also noted that the Treasury has commissioned a study on the cause of financial restatements; there is a financial regulatory review underway; there are private sector committees developing best practices for investors and hedge fund managers; and a Treasury advisory committee reviewing the sustainability of the auditing profession will report its final recommendations this summer.

“Together, these additional committees and efforts will provide further guidance to enhance market integrity, investor protection and mitigate systemic risk,” Paulson said.

In response, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association expressed support for the recommendations. “SIFMA welcomes Treasury’s credit market recommendations,” said Tim Ryan, president & CEO of SIFMA. “Combined with private sector efforts already underway, we expect Treasury’s proposals will help steer the American economy back on course.”

Additionally, Fitch Ratings president and CEO, Stephen Joynt, said, “We commend the President’s Working Group on their thoughtful observations on the market events of the past several months. We will continue, on our own and with our industry, to work with regulators, investors and other market participants to ensure that our ratings are the most transparent, useful and accurate that they can be.”