Stark Says ECB Didn’t Expect Banks to Borrow So Much for 3 Years

Former European Central Bank Chief Economist Juergen Stark said policy makers didn’t expect banks to borrow so much in their three-year loan operations.

“Nobody had expected the dimensions of this program,” Stark said in an interview with Bloomberg Television in Cernobbio, Italy, today. While it was appropriate to consider these operations, the ECB is now on the hook for three years and it will take time to shrink its balance sheet, he said.