ECB's Draghi calls for banking union

FRANKFURT
European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called on European politicians to come up with a vision for the euro zone for the years ahead to better tackle the region's debt crisis and to restore confidence, with greater centralization of financial sector regulation as the first possible step
"The sooner the vision is clarified the better for the European Union," Draghi said Thursday at a hearing in front of the European Parliament's Committee of Monetary and Financial Affairs
More centralized banking supervision is necessary for large banking groups that are systemically significant for the financial sector of a country, he said
Draghi was speaking in his capacity as chairman of the European Systemic Risk Board and not as head of the ECB.
Draghi noted, however, that the ECB has carried out numerous steps in a very short time to tackle the crisis and now the ball is in the governments' court
The ECB can't make up for the lack of action on the part of national euro-zone governments to put their fiscal house in order and carry out structural measures to improve competitiveness, he said
Lending is still very low because of lack of capital and high risk aversion, neither of which can be remedied with ECB measures, Draghi said