US treasury secretary urges Germany to do more on banks and economy

Jacob J. Lew, the U.S. Treasury secretary, urged Germany and its European partners on Wednesday to take even bolder steps in terms of banking reform, as his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schauble, defended the complicated and still incomplete blueprint agreed to by European finance ministers in December. Mr. Lew, in a news conference with Mr. Schauble, gave the Europeans credit for making “significant progress” with that agreement. But he stressed that beyond salvaging damaged banks, Washington would like Europe to head off trouble by requiring “backstops,” higher capital reserves for banks that would enable them to better withstand crises. “It is important to have backstops in place,” Mr. Lew said before he departed for Portugal, where he was to meet later on Wednesday with Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho.