Draghi plays down hope of liquidity deal

MARIO DRAGHI, the man most likely to be the next ECB head, was lukewarm about the prospects of extending medium-term liquidity to Irish banks rather than the current 14-day roll over.

Before the European Parliament’s economics committee, that will vote on his suitability for the job, he was asked by Fine Gael’s Jim Mitchell if he would agree that changing the cash arrangements would not help restore confidence in Ireland and the eurozone.

“We are aware it would be a big improvement, but we have to weight the different trade-offs here”, the 63-year-old Italian banker responded.