Bernanke: More needed to solve euro debt crisis

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will tell members of Congress on Wednesday that Europe must do even more to bolster the strength of its financial system, according to prepared remarks. Amid European scrambling to rectify its debt crisis, Bernanke underscored that there was more work ahead. "Full resolution of the crisis will require a further strengthening of the European banking system," Bernanke will tell Congress, according to written testimony. He added that European countries also needed "a significant expansion of financial backstops, or 'firewalls,' to guard against contagion in sovereign debt markets; and, critically, continued efforts to increase economic growth and competitiveness and to reduce external imbalances in the troubled countries."