Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the global financial crisis shows the world failed to learn from the "greed is good" era of the 1980s.

In a speech to a group of business leaders at the weekend, Mr Rudd linked the turmoil in global financial markets with the 1987 Oliver Stone film Wall Street and its infamous lead character, stockbroker Gordon Gekko.

Mr Rudd said the "greed is good" era of the 1980s brought on the stockmarket crash of 1987 and played a part in global recession of the early 1990s.

"It is perhaps time now to admit that we did not learn the full lessons of the greed is good ideology. And today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st Century children of Gordon Gekko," he said.

Mr Rudd says the credit crisis highlights a lack of values among corporations and executives.

"We've seen the triumph of greed over integrity," he said.

"The fact is that much of the root cause of the sub prime crisis came down to our financial markets rewarding people for taking extravagant risks."

The Prime Minister called for countries to get together to better regulate financial markets and promised to keep a close eye on Australia's financial system.

Federal Minister for Small Business Craig Emerson has told NewsRadio, Mr Rudd's call is directed at global markets, and Australia's financial system is not in need of major regulatory changes.

"Our financial system is properly regulated, it's probably the envy of the world but for example in the United States regulation has proven to be very poor indeed," he said.

Former ACCC chairman Allan Fels says it is inevitable there will be tighter controls on the corporate sector after a decade of deregulation.

However, Mr Fels also warned that regulation is not failsafe, pointing towards regulatory failures such as the collapse of HIH and US company Enron.

"I think the Prime Minister has identified an important need to get a better regulatory hold on the financial sector," he told NewsRadio.

"I would just want to point out that it will be quite a difficult challenge for the regulators but it will be necessary for them to address those issues and I think the public wants it."

In recent days Mr Rudd has been forced to defend the Government's position on not forcing Australia's four big banks banks to pass on any cut in interest rates in full.

It is expected that the Reserve Bank board tomorrow will cut interest rates and there has been some speculation it could be by as much as 50 basis points.