Germany's Schaeuble : Object to ECB Rate Setters as Bank Supervisor
09/15/2012| 08:30am US/Eastern
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By Todd Buell
NICOSIA-German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said Saturday that he had "considerable" objections to seeing the Governing Council of the European Central Bank be the final authority on banking supervision in Europe.
"The ECB must be strongly involved" in bank supervision, said the German minister, but "it cannot involve monetary policy nor can it affect the independence of the ECB," Mr. Schaeuble told a news conference. "For example, I have considerable doubt about the proposal of the [European] Commission that the Governing Board of the ECB would have the final decision," he said.
Mr. Schaeuble was speaking on the sidelines of an informal meeting of European finance and economy ministers in the Cypriot capital.
The meeting has served as a setting for European officials to voice concerns about recent proposals for the European Union's executive arm, the European Commission, to make the ECB the single supervisor for banks within the euro zone and to allow non-euro zone states to come under ECB supervision.
Mr. Schaeuble said it was important to see a deal that all 27 European States could agree on.
The role of the ECB is a key point of contention, especially among non-euro zone governments. Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said earlier Saturday that it was "very problematic" for his country's banks to fall under the supervision of the Frankfurt-based central bank.
(Gabriele Steinhauser contributed to this report)
Write to Todd Buell at: todd.buell@dowjones.com Twitter: @ToddBuell
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