from Reuters UK
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Euro zone banks borrowed a record 1.31 trillion euros ($1.47 trillion) from the European Central Bank on Thursday, taking advantage of negative interest rates to meet growing demand for credit from companies hit by the deepest recession in living memory.
Launched six years ago, the ECB’s targeted-longer term refinancing operations (TLTROs) were redesigned earlier this year to help the economy cope with the coronavirus crisis and banks will get the cash for a rate as low as minus 1%.
At 1.31 trillion euros, take up is above expectations with most analysts predicting a figure just over 1 trillion euros for the three-year loans. Forecasts were generally in the 900 billion to 1.4 trillion euro range.