New York, NY —

Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William Dudley says the U.S. government is going to pump as much money as needed into the system to make sure banks that are "too big to fail" don't fail.

DUDLEY: The government is committed to supplying whatever amount of capital is needed to ensure that all the major banks will remain viable.

Yet Dudley says there should be an “explicit quid pro quo” between the U.S. government and banks that are “too big to fail”. Some economists have talked about large banks paying an additional tax during boom years, since the government is protecting them in the recession. Dudley spoke today at the Council of Foreign Relations. It was his first major speech since succeeding Tim Geithner, who's now treasury secretary.