Euro-Zone Banks Return €296 Billion in Cheap ECB Funding
- Pandemic-era funding is becoming less attractive for banks
- Outcome may factor into next policy decision in December
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Banks will return €296.3 billion ($308 billion) of cheap loans to the European Central Bank after their terms were toughened to help the battle against record inflation.
The repayment represents just under 15% of the total outstanding amount of so-called TLTRO loans, which were used during the pandemic to keep credit flowing to households and businesses. The median forecast in a Bloomberg poll this month was for €600 billion to be given back. The projections ranged from €200 billion to €1.5 trillion.