Germany open to bank coordination: Wolfgang Schaeuble

BERLIN: Germany is open to closer European coordination to resolve the euro area’s banking troubles as the government backs moves to deepen political and economic union, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

Schaeuble’s backing for efforts to tighten banking cooperation, made in an interview published in Tuesday’s Handelsblatt newspaper, follows comments by Chancellor Angela Merkel last night in which she said that systemic banks may need supervision at the European level.

Ratification of the fiscal pact locking in debt and deficit limits “is one step, but it’s not yet sufficient,” Merkel said in Berlin before talks with European Commission head Jose Barroso.