FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank would like to see
tighter fiscal rules in the European Union, but will “make it work”
regardless of what the European Council decides, ECB Vice President
Vitor Constancio said Wednesday.
A global mechanism to deal with cross-border, systemically relevant
financial institutions will be difficult to achieve, although some
progress in the area is being made, Constancio told reporters on the
sidelines of the ECB’s statistics conference here.
Ask if new EU rules were sufficient to ensure fiscal soundness,
given that sanctions against offenders are not automatic, the central
banker said:
“As you know, we would like the rules to be tighter and more quasi
automatic. But we will have to assess exactly the final text, and
whatever is decided at the EU level of the Council and we have to make
it work.”
Given the number of changes in national laws needed to avoid things
such as “ring-fencing” of assets in the winding down of large,
cross-border financial institutions, achieving a complete global
resolution regime for cross-border institutions is “very difficult,”
Constancio said.
— Frankfurt bureau: +49-69-720 142; email: tbuell@marketnews.com —
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