ECB lending to banks rises by €2bn

BANK RELIANCE:LENDING BY the European Central Bank to banks in Ireland, including international institutions operating from the IFSC, rose by €2 billion last month while emergency lending by the Central Bank fell by the same amount.

ECB lending into Ireland rose to €102.9 billion on November 25th from €100.9 billion on October 28th, according to updated figures published by the Central Bank.

The amount of “other assets”, which is mostly emergency loans provided under the Central Bank’s exceptional liquidity assistance facility, fell to €45.7 billion on November 25th from €47.7 billion four weeks previously.

The latest statistics do not break down ECB lending to the guaranteed banks – AIB, Bank of Ireland, Irish Life & Permanent, and Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (formerly Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide Building Society).

That figure will be published by the Central Bank in its money and banking statistics for November later this month.

The guaranteed banks had drawn €68.7 billion from the ECB at the end of October, down from €70.3 billion a month earlier, according to statistics published at the end of last month.

The Department of Finance has said the guaranteed banks account for about 70 per cent of ECB lending into Ireland.

The Irish banks have been ordered to deleverage their balance sheets of €73 billion of excess loans to reduce loans from the European and Irish central banks to return to self-sufficiency.

The level of Irish deposits within the banks have remained stable at about €102 billion from July when the banks were capitalised until October, for which the most recent figures are available.