ECB Lends 348.6 Billion Euros, Easing Year-End Cash Drought

ECB Lends 348.6 Billion Euros, Easing Year-End Cash Drought

By Gabi Thesing

Dec. 18 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank loaned 348.6 billion euros ($501.5 billion) for two weeks to banks to bring down the cost of money at year-end.

The reluctance to lend money after the collapse of the U.S. subprime market pushed interbank euro rates for two weeks to the highest level at least six years earlier this week. The rate banks charge each other for two-week euros fell to 4.45 percent from 4.94 percent, the European Banking Federation said today.

``It won't fix the actual problem of banks not lending,'' said Michael Schubert, an economist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. ``It also raises the moral hazard question for the ECB, whereby banks could start relying on getting cheap cash.''

Borrowing costs jumped in August as banks, including Bear Stearns Cos. and Merrill Lynch & Co., began to reveal losses on securities linked to U.S. mortgages aimed at people with poor credit histories. Losses from U.S. subprime mortgage foreclosures will probably reach $300 billion, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development predicted on Nov. 22.

The slump in global credit markets may force banks, brokerages and hedge funds to cut lending by $2 trillion and trigger a ``substantial recession'' in the U.S., Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecast on Nov. 16. The ECB first offered extra cash on Aug. 9, when it lent an unprecedented 95 billion euros in emergency funding to banks.

The ECB said 390 banks bid for the two-week loans at a marginal rate of 4.21 percent. Bids ranged from 4 percent to 4.45 percent.


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