Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a member of the European Central Bank's (ECB) executive board, has said banks' "addiction" to ample central bank liquidity cannot delay its exit strategy.

Bini Smaghi told an audience in Rome on Friday that the ECB's exit strategy from its extraordinary crisis-fighting measures would be defined by its price stability remit. "In this respect, financial stability can only be a secondary objective. If it were given the same priority as price stability, the latter would