Reports today suggest the head of the German Central Bank has threatened to resign in a row with the ECB over measures proposed to deal with the eurozone crisis.

The ECB must employ “exceptional measures” at times to fulfil its mandate of delivering stable prices, its president Mario Draghi wrote in an opinion piece aimed at calming German angst about the bank’s policy course.

The head of Germany’s Bundesbank stepped up his opposition to the European Central Bank’s latest moves to battle the eurozone’s debt crisis yesterday, saying that plans to buy bonds risked becoming a drug on which governments would get hooked.

Can Mario Draghi, the new broom at the head of the European Central Bank, deliver on his pledge to do whatever it takes to defend the European currency from attack, asks Kyran Fitzgerald

Banking group UBS claimed today that the botched stock market listing of social networking giant Facebook cost it 349 million Swiss francs (€290m).

THE EUROPEAN Central Bank’s incoming president signalled yesterday that the bank stood ready to carry on buying the bonds of troubled eurozone governments, suggesting he is ready to intervene to steady markets in the face of German misgivings.

The European Commission has insisted that the next leader of the International Monetary Fund must come from the European Union, a stance backed by Germany, the continent’s economic heavyweight.

European finance ministers recommended Italy’s Mario Draghi to be the next head of the European Central Bank, clearing the way for his appointment to a job where he will lead the fight against the debt crisis and inflation.

GERMAN chancellor Angela Merkel backed Mario Draghi yesterday to become the next European Central Bank president, clearing the way for the Italian to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet from November.

With Jean Claude Trichet preparing to step down as president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, an Italian banker with more than enough experience, is the person likely to step into his office, writes Kyran Fitzgerald

AN ECB interest rate hike of 0.25% in April is a distinct possibility while the money markets have priced in two further increases before the year end.

SO far the battle for Dáil seats with parties using the economy as a weapon looks like a macabre play with few links to reality when viewed from Brussels.

ECB officials edged back from a threat to raise interest rates, saying markets have over-reacted to their change in tone on inflation.

THE European Central Bank should draft commercial lenders as allies in its fight to stem the euro-region financial crisis by giving them incentives to buy bonds of debt-swamped governments, Deutsche Bank says.

IRELAND’S rescue programme is a good one and will bring stabilisation to the country, according to the European Central Bank (ECB).

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel is proving, as if needed to be proven, that there is no such thing as a free lunch but let us all fervently hope that the bill will not include another referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.

Frankfurt: European Central Bank council member Axel Weber said the ECB should help banks through end-of-year liquidity tensions before determining in the first quarter when to withdraw emergency lending measures.

AIB could place its 22.5% stake in US bank M&T with institutional investors if it fails to secure a purchaser.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for tougher regulation aimed at stock and bond traders along with a crackdown on government debt to contain the continent’s financial crisis, warning the future of the euro itself was at stake.

HAVING hinted that it might postpone raising funds on international money markets this month, the National Treasury Management Agency intends to issue bonds next Tuesday.

Insolvency law needs to be reformed to enable banks to be stabilised without bailing out their owners and creditors, according to the president of the German central bank.

THE head of Germany’s Central Bank has expressed serious doubt over the potential effectiveness of the proposed European Stabilisation Fund, which is aimed at reducing future failings in the international banking sector.

INTEREST rates are likely to stay at their historic low until at least early next year, it has emerged.

SUBSTANTIAL spending cuts and increases in taxation are required in the coming years in Ireland, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

HOMEOWNERS will rack up monthly savings of up to almost €500 since September if interest rates, as expected are slashed to their lowest level ever next week.

European Central Bank policy makers Axel Weber and Lucas Papademos said the bank may need to raise interest rates further if the inflation outlook deteriorates.

INFLATION concerns have let two leading ECB officials to warn the next move in European interest rates could be upwards.

Stocks in the US retreated from lofty heights today after a European Central Bank official pointed to rising price risks and a major Wall Street bank lowered its sales expectations for Chinese internet company Baidu.com.

AS Europe heads into its fastest growth period in six years, the euro’s rise could put an end to the party even before it gets into full swing.

THE European Central Bank is expected to leave official interest rates unchanged at its monthly policy meeting on Thursday, but signal that the next increase will be in March.

THE euro is testing a two-year high against the dollar as we go to print, and before the year is out, we could well see it rise to tackle $1.36 — the euro’s lifetime high, reached on New Year’s Eve 2004.

The ISEQ inched up 25.42 points this afternoon to 8097.4 points. The financials mirrored the modest gains with all major banks creeping into the black.

EUROPEAN Central Bank council members including Axel Weber and Yves Mersch said the surge in oil prices risks pushing up inflation as economic growth accelerates, indicating the bank is poised to raise interest rates.

Frankfurt: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s cabinet nominated Axel Weber, a government economic adviser, as the new Bundesbank president.

The German government is nominating an economics professor as central bank president to succeed Ernst Welteke, who stepped down for taking a free hotel stay from a commercial bank.