The continent’s sovereign debt crisis has seemed like an echo of 2008 when a banking system breakdown in the United States pushed the world into its most serious economic crisis in 70 years and raised fears of another Great Depression.

World markets have tanked amid uncertainty over Europe’s government finances. The Dow Jones industrial average declined 7.9 percent in May, though has recovered some of that loss so far in June, while the euro has sharply weakened amid fears for the single currency’s viability.

Still, the volatility has not been on the scale of the market mayhem in 2008 following the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings. But it serves as a reminder of the massive task the G-20 has set for itself: reforming the global financial system to prevent another crisis and ensure economic stability.

South Korea, which assumed the rotating Group of 20 chair this year, is hosting the meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in the southern port city of Busan on Friday and Saturday.

The G-20 is working on policy recommendations aimed at achieving what it calls “strong, sustainable and balanced growth” to hand to leaders at a pair of summits scheduled for this year — one in Canada later this month and another in Seoul in November.

The forum has been trying to come up with a new financial architecture to manage the global economy in the wake of the 2008 crisis. Proposals include a bank tax, setting new standards on how much capital banks need to protect against a future financial crisis and establishing “financial safety nets” to help bolster countries such as host South Korea, which have been vulnerable to the whims of traders who can send billions of dollars across borders at the press of a button.

The G-20 has agreed at a series of summits in the United States and Britain since late 2008 on the need for tighter financial regulation to prevent the kind of Lehman-induced turmoil that could potentially sink the global economy.

Coming up with solutions, however, has proved a challenge.

The issue of a bank tax to pay for future bailouts has proved divisive. The U.S. and European countries favor the move, while others such as Canada and Australia — whose banks survived the global crisis intact — oppose it.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday he did not think the G-20 would reach agreement at this week’s meeting on the bank tax issue. But he said differences were narrowing in other areas, including capital standards.

“We want to accelerate progress on a global agreement on core reforms,” Geithner told reporters at a briefing in Washington before he left for Busan.

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