ECB can't have last word in bank supervision: Germany's Schaeuble

The European Central Bank should not be given the final say when supervising banks, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Tuesday, warning that the German parliament would not approve a mechanism seeking to oversee all the region's lenders.

"The right of the last decision cannot be left to the ECB Governing Council," Schaeuble said during a publicly-aired exchange of views with fellow EU finance ministers in Brussels.

He called on the ECB to ensure fiscal and banking policy did not stray into monetary policy and said he doubted whether the Frankfurt-based central bank could supervise thousands of lenders.

"Again and again, we have made clear that a Chinese wall between banking supervision and monetary policy is an absolute necessity," Schaeuble said.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott and John O'Donnell. Editing by Sebastian Moffett.)