The ECB Will Likely Turn Off the Money Spigot Next Week

“The European Central Bank wants its second offer of cheap ultra-long funds next week to be its last, putting the onus back on governments to secure the euro zone’s longer-term future.

Bloomberg / Bloomberg via Getty Images A Euro sign sculpture stands in front of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) headquarters.

Powerful members of the central bank’s 23-man governing council are privately hoping demand at the February 29 auction will fall well short of the 1 trillion euros (837.8 billion pounds) some expect, backing their view that it should be the last.

Central bank sources say they are worried that banks will become too reliant on ECB funds, removing the incentive to restart lending between themselves.

The ECB first offered banks low cost three-year money in December to stave off a freeze in interbank lending that threatened to make the region’s debt crisis much worse.

Banks flocked to take advantage of the offer, filling their coffers, and ECB President Mario Draghi said “a major, major credit crunch” had been averted.

Some European officials have been hoping the central bank would carry on supporting the economy with a series of subsequent cheap money auctions, known as LTROs.

But the ECB wants to keep pressure on governments to improve their defense of the euro zone with better economic policies and by bolstering their European Stability Mechanism (ESM) firewall which will come into being by mid-year.

Making hundreds of billions of euros easily available to banks over a three-year period also risks fuelling a credit binge that some central bankers worry could push up inflation.

The ECB funneled banks nearly half a trillion euros in cash at the first operation on December 21. A Reuters poll of over 60 economists showed a mid-range expectation for it to allot another 492 billion euros next week with some expecting up to a trillion to be taken.

Too Generous

The first LTRO, or longer-term refinancing operation, has already eased market pressures…..”

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