FRANKFURT (MNI) – ECB Governing Council member Mario Draghi said
Wednesday that his history at Goldman Sachs does not place him too close
to private banks, and he pointed to his track record at the Bank of
Italy and the Financial Stability Board.
“I think that my six years with the Bank of Italy would show” that
I have no conflict of interest and am not too close to banks, Draghi
told the European Parliament. In supervising Italian banks, “rather than
a light touch, the touch was actually heavy…And that is the right way
to run supervision,” he added.
In the same vein, the Financial Stability Board, which Draghi
heads, has pushed for a tough reform on global supervision, Draghi
noted. In fact, “in 2008, the only response to the crisis was given by
the FSB,” he added.
Draghi dismissed speculation that he knew of or was involved in a
now-infamous Goldman Sachs deal with Greece to help it hide the real
extent of its debt through complex currency swaps. “I can be seen by
unbiased people as having acted with integrity while I was at Goldman,”
Draghi asserted.
–Frankfurt newsroom, +49-69-720-142; frankfurt@marketnews.com
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