Some ECB Officials See Legal Basis to Toughen TLTRO Terms

  • 10% inflation, rates rising may provide reason to intervene
  • Adjusting loan conditions outright is one of three options

A pedestrian bridge across the Main with the European Central Bank beyond. 

Photographer: Dorothee Barth/picture alliance/Getty Images

Lock
This article is for subscribers only.

Some European Central Bank policymakers reckon it’s legally feasible to revise long-term lending conditions for banks after the terms became more generous because of changes in the economy, according to officials familiar with the matter.

The so-called TLTRO loans were first issued in 2014 to encourage banks to lend as Europe’s debt crisis weighed on growth and threatened to trigger a bout of deflation. They served a similar purpose after the pandemic struck.