Sweden: 'Virtually no chance' of ECB agreement before new year

Sweden's Finance Minister has poured cold water over proposals for the ECB to supervise banks across the EU.

Anders Borg said there is "virtually no chance" of an agreement being reached on the proposal before the end of the year.

His comments come at the end of the second day of talks with Eurogroup finance ministers in Cyprus.

The European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he wants to see the ECB take on the supervisory role for all banks across the EU, because of the impact the failures of small lenders has had on the financial crisis.

It comes after European Minister Lucinda Creighton said this morning she is extremely confident a deal can be reached to improve the terms of Ireland's bailout "relatively quickly".

Yesterday it was confirmed that the Eurozone's permanent bailout fund, the ESM, will be up and running at the end of next month.

That will have impact on moves to restructure Irish bank debt, something the Finance Minister Michael Noonan insists his department are pursuing as a priority, despite the fact that they will miss their October deadline.