GETTY Mario Draghi, European Central Bank president, has warned of tightening rules

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ECB President Mario Draghi will speak in Frankfurt today in an attempt to calm nerves over non-performing loans throughout the eurozone. His speech comes after the worst two-week run for the Euro against the Dollar since March 2015. On Wednesday, the pair hit a near-year-low of 1.0670, but today that the euro to the US dollar was down again at 1.061. Financial experts have claimed the exchange rate will slip below parity in 2017.

GETTY Mario Draghi said the problem in Europe has been differing rules between countries

We need a strong banking sector to support the economy through the recovery Mario Draghi

Non-performing loans are one of the biggest hangovers from the eurozone financial crisis, with countries such as Italy, Greece and Cyprus afflicted by stubbornly high levels of bad debt. And so far, the ECB has failed to bring calm to countries infuriated by differing treatment and definitions. Draghi, whose speech has been pre-published online, will tell those gathered at the financial thinktank eurofinance’s week-long event on Friday the number of failing loans in the eurozone is falling. He said: “The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio has been decreasing in the euro area, even if modestly. “While NPLs remain high in some countries, the problem today is more related to profitability than to the robustness of balance sheets, since coverage ratios are close to 50% and much of the remainder is collateralised. “We need a strong banking sector to support the economy through the recovery.”

Mr Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, will give a clear signal that policymakers will continue to support the eurozone economy with monetary stimulus. The banking boss is also calling for tighter controls of the financial sectors - something he says will bring down risk. He said: “But if there is one lesson we can draw from the past decade, it is that to be genuinely robust, the banking sector must be well-regulated. “Indeed, there is a widespread agreement that one of the main causes of the global financial crisis was the excessive deregulation of the financial sector in the previous two decades.” The ECB president admits the recovery of the zone since 2008 is slow. He said EU banks overextended credit and excessive debts were taken on by firms and households, ultimately depressing “both credit supply and demand”.

GETTY Mario Draghi said the ECB will do everything in its power to increase the value of the euro