–Adds Comments On the Euro, G20, Basel 3, Too-Big-To-Fail Banks

PARIS (MNI) – Senior Federal Reserve officials assured other
central bankers over the weekend that the goal of their most recent
quantitative easing plan is not to devalue the dollar, European Central
Bank Governing Council member Christian Noyer said in an interview with
the French daily Le Figaro, which appeared on the newspaper’s Web site.

And, Noyer said, he has no reason not to believe the Fed’s
explanation.

The U.S. has been criticized across the globe in recent days for
the Federal Reserve’s decision last Wednesday to buy $600 billion worth
of Treasury securities in another round of quantitative easing popularly
known as QE2.

Officials from Brazil to China to Germany have taken the U.S. to
task over the move, saying the flood of extra dollars into the system
would not be welcome. Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble hit
the hardest, calling U.S. policymakers “clueless,” and saying it was
“inconsistent” for them to criticize China for maintaining its currency
artificially low while achieving the same thing by other means.

“We brought up the subject last weekend, in Basel, at the meeting
of the Bank for International Settlements,” Noyer, who is governor of
the Bank of France, said. “The leaders of the Fed explained to us how
they conceived of their action, in view of their mandate, their
objective of relaunching the American economy, and the risk of
deflation,” Noyer said. “They assured us that they had no deliberate
intention of making the dollar drop. And I have no reason not to believe
them.”

In any event, “it doesn’t all boil down to the dollar,” Noyer said.
He noted that there were some emerging market countries which, “failing
to accept sufficient flexibility of their exchange rate, have
ill-adapted monetary policies that create risks of inflation and for
growth.”

He insisted that despite divergences among central banks, nobody
wants to stray far from the path of policy consistency, and everyone is
“committed to ensure a framework for balanced growth — and that
commitment is still as strong as ever.”

Noyer added: “As the last G20 meeting of finance ministers and
central bank governors reaffirmed, nobody should or can manipulate their
currency.”

Commenting on trans-Atlantic policy divergence, Noyer said it was
“not the reality of things” simply to say that the Fed is “very
accommodating” and the ECB “very rigorous.” He noted that the ECB’s
monetary policy is “still marked by non-conventional measures adapted
consistent with the structure of our economy.” He said that in the ECB’s
view the Eurozone economy is not at risk of deflation or inflation. And
while the U.S. economy is notably below its long-term growth potential,
the euro area is “relatively close to its potential,” he noted.

Noyer bristled at a question from the paper asking if the euro was
the “big victim” of all the recent fluctuations in exchange rate
markets.

“It’s not only the euro that floats against the other currencies.
Let’s not be such navel gazers!” he said. “This idea that I hear,
according to which the euro is adjustment variable for the rest of the
world seems bizarre to me.”

Noyer noted that the “central problem” at the upcoming G20 Summit
in Seoul is how to reduce the large balance of payments imbalances,
“which weigh on global growth and generate dangerous capital flows.”

The answer, he said, does not lie in monetary policy alone. Every
region of the world must make progress towards a better balance between
savings, consumption and investment. “And as regards the international
monetary system, we all have an interest in reforming it, but in a
structural, methodical, calm way, and certainly not in a precipitous
manner,” Noyer said.

“It is a long-term project to move from a system in which only the
currencies of the big industrial countries counted to the multi-polar
world in which we are living now,” the Bank of France governor added.

Noyer defended the recent Basel 3 accord on new bank standards,
saying the quantity and quality of bank capital must be reinforced
because “it is out of the question to be confronted by a situation in
which governments fly to the aid of banks once again.”

He appeared to dismiss a recent proposal by the Financial Stability
Board, headed by fellow ECB Council member Mario Draghi, under which
capital standards would be even stronger for large systemically relevant
banks than for other ones.

“That should not be automatic, but rather it should be just one
option,” Noyer said. He said different policies and instruments could be
implemented, according to different national circumstances and taking
into account the experiences of national banking supervisors.

–Paris Newsroom, +331-42-71-55-40; bwolfson@marketnews.com

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