FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank announced on Thursday
that it expected to settle no bond purchases through its Securities
Market Program (SMP) in the week ending April 22.
With the bank having remained on the sidelines for a record fourth
consecutive week, the total amount of funds that the central bank will
seek to drain remained at E76.0 billion. The ECB will drain that amount
in a quick tender to collect one-week term deposits.
The operation, to be conducted on Tuesday at 9:30 GMT, will be in
the form of a variable-rate tender with a maximum bid rate of 1.25%, the
bank said. The liquidity will be held for one week at the bank as a term
deposit. The fixed-term deposits can be used as collateral in the
Eurosystem’s credit operations.
The central bank also said it intends to hold another
liquidity-absorbing operation next week.
— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —
[TOPICS: MGX$$$,M$X$$$,M$$EC$]