The Obama administration can make tax inversions less economically attractive to U.S. corporations and deter companies from changing their addresses, Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew said.

Lew said a "broken" tax system is what prompts U.S. companies to reduce taxes by moving their addresses abroad. He reiterated yesterday that the administration will decide on possible action in the "very near future" to limit inversions.

"If Congress doesn't act, we have to take the steps we can, which will reduce the economic value of inversions," he said in an interview with Bloomberg Television at the Treasury Department in Washington. "It will not take away the need for legislation. But it will take a lot of the value out of these inversions, which I hope will change the decisions companies make."