Junk Bonds Stay Out of ECB QE Scope After Collateral Rule Change

Road markings sit on an empty Unter den Linden boulevard at dawn in Berlin on April 11Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
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Junk bonds will remain outside the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing universe for now, even after changes to rating criteria that make recently downgraded bonds eligible as collateral for liquidity operations.

Wednesday’s decision applies only to lending operations, an ECB spokesman said. “We do not exclude that we make further changes in the future but for now, BBB- remains one of the criteria for the CSPP,” he added.