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Irish Banks Behind ECB Lending Surge - WSJ.com
The ECB's disclosure late last week that it had lent around 16 billion, or $21.90 billion--the highest levels since June 2009--under its emergency marginal lending facility left many financial-market participants searching for the cause. ... The overnight facility used by the Irish banks carries a 1.75% interest rate. Irish banks are the euro bloc's heaviest users of the ECB's regular lending facilities, borrowing 126 billion in January, according to data from the Irish central bank. Some traders and analysts had speculated that the spike in ECB funding may have been caused by a liquidity crisis at a euro-zone bank. Though the unexpected overnight-lending spike caught investors' attention last week, it didn't have much of an effect on bond yields or the euro because analysts didn't see evidence of broader stress in the banking system or short-term money markets.
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The overnight facility used by the Irish banks carries a 1.75% interest rate. Irish banks are the euro bloc's heaviest users of the ECB's regular lending facilities, borrowing 126 billion in January, according to data from the Irish central bank. Some traders and analysts had speculated that the spike in ECB funding may have been caused by a liquidity crisis at a euro-zone bank.
Though the unexpected overnight-lending spike caught investors' attention last week, it didn't have much of an effect on bond yields or the euro because analysts didn't see evidence of broader stress in the banking system or short-term money markets.
To be fair, my own view about the Irish MLF spike was that there was actually no cause for alarm since the banks responsible were already being restructured. But how you can claim that there are no signs of anything amiss in the interbank market escapes me. Last week's episode was simply due to Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society releasing some assets from being held as weekly collateral for the ECB's Main Refinancing Operations to being held as daily collateral for the MLF. This was done in preparation for a sale of 15bn-worth of deposits as part of the wind-down of the two banks. Keynesianism is intellectually hard, as evidenced by the inability of many trained economists to get it - Paul Krugman
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