2023-05-13 13:00:47
The debt of Spanish banks with the European Central Bank (ECB) It fell below the 100 billion mark in April for the first time in eight years, since March 2015.
Specifically, the debt with the ECB stood at 96,178.5 million euros, which represents a monthly decrease of 14,612.2 million euros in absolute terms and 13.2% in relative terms, according to the figures published this Friday by the Bank of Spain.
In 2015, the debt of the Spanish banks with the ECB was only below 100,000 million euros in two months (February and March). Excluding that period, you have to go back to December 2011 to find a figure below that level.
Compared to April 2022, the fall in the debt of the Spanish banks with the central bank is 66.8%, which represents a reduction of 193,510.9 million euros.
This reduction occurs in a context of normalization of monetary policies, which has led the ECB to raise interest rates and encourage early amortization of the liquidity it provided to banks during the Covid-19 crisis through the TLTRO auction program -III, among other measures.
As for the data from the Eurosystem banks as a whole to the ECB, it fell by 8.7% in April, to stand at 1.100 trillion euros. This figure is 49.9% lower than that of a year earlier.
Thus, the appeal of banks resident in Spain to the issuing institution represented 8.7% of the Eurosystem total in April, compared to 9.2% in March, and below the 13.2% registered in April 2022.
On the other hand, the aggregate volume of assets acquired in Spain within the framework of the different asset purchase programs implemented since 2009 by the ECB totaled 622,412 million euros in April, barely 0.02% more than in March, and a 0.9% more than in the same month last year.
In the Eurosystem as a whole, the aggregate amount of asset purchases stood at a total of 4.904 trillion euros in the fourth month of 2023, 0.5% less than in March and barely 0.02% less than in March. April 2022.
According to data from the Bank of Spain, the aggregate volume of asset purchases in Spain represents 12.7% of the total corresponding to the consolidated balance sheet of the Eurosystem, in line with March and above 12.6% from a year earlier.
The Bank of Spain also points to the significant restructuring of excess liquidity positions that have been observed in September 2022 from reserve accounts in favor of deposit facility balances to benefit from the rate hike applied by the ECB. Currently, the reference rate for deposits is 3%.
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