Mario Draghi warns against lower US bank standards

The ECB rejected US accusations of currency manipulation yesterday and warned that deregulating the banking industry, now being discussed in Washington, could sow the seeds of the next financial crisis.

Arguing that lax regulation had been a key cause of the global financial crisis a decade ago, ECB president Mario Draghi said the idea of easing bank rules was not just worrying but potentially dangerous, threatening the relative stability that has supported the slow but steady recovery.

Mr Draghi’s words are among the strongest reactions yet from Europe since US president Donald Trump ordered a review of banking rules with the implicit aim of loosening them. That raises the spectre of the US pulling out of some international co-operation efforts.