EU financial chief defends policies

Stricter rules won't solve the economic crisis, European Union Financial Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said, answering criticism that his policies left banks unchecked.

"Change in regulation itself is not going to re-galvanize the world economy," McCreevy said in an interview yesterday in Davos, Switzerland.

The EU is moving to close what McCreevy described as gaps in the rules on banks and credit-rating companies, in response to almost $1.1 trillion of losses and writedowns by financial companies in the past year and a half.