ECB: Record 442 billion Euros “Stimulus by Stealth”

HT to Alea for the excellent headline. After reading the latest ECB "Instability" Report....... & the almost irresistable conditions ( despite news like this ECB Tightens Rules On Liquidity Facilities & Adjustment of risk control measures for newly issued asset-backed securities and for uncovered bank bonds ) it is no surprise to see such a huge number. .......A no brainer...... I can imagine Trichet is already praying that this will work.....I have some serious doubts......Liquidity is & was not the issue..... Core problems ( impaired bank balance sheets, not enough creditworthy borrowers ) are still unsolved and are getting worse on a daily basis..... Update : Spanish banks to get €90 billion bailout

Dank an Alea für die sehr treffende Überschrift. Nachdem ich den letzten ECB "Instability" Report....... gelesen habe und wenn man die unwiderstehlichen Konditionen ( trotz leicht verschärfter Bedingungen / siehe ECB Tightens Rules On Liquidity Facilities & Adjustment of risk control measures for newly issued asset-backed securities and for uncovered bank bonds ) berücksichtigt dürfte die Höhe nicht wirklich überraschen. Eine echte Lizenz zum Gelddrucken.....Kann mir bildlich vorstellen wie Trichet & Co beten, das dieser Kraftakt endlich dazu führt, das die Kreditmärkte wieder wie gewünscht funktionieren ( Update Banken tragen Milliarden zurück zur EZB ).... Ich denke das auch dieser Versuch maximal etwas Linderung in Form von geringeren Spreads verschaffen wird..... Dummerweise ist mangelnde Liquidität nicht das Problem. Solange die Problematik der bilanztechnisch insolventen Banken nicht gelöst wird und man anerkennt das es im Angesicht einer lang anhaltenden Rezession einfach zu wenig kreditwürdige Unternehmen gibt, dürfte sich die Lage weiter verschlechtern. Wenn man so will handeln die Banken aus Ihrer Sicht ironischerweise momentan das erste Mal nach Jahren der "Trunkenheit" richtig. Tragisch aus deutscher Sicht ist vor allem das unser Bankensystem trotz fehlender eigener Blase dank der desaströsen Exzesse besonders der Landesbanken ( folgerichtig kommen die Sparkassen als Anteilseigner dank massivster Wertberichtigungen auf Ihre LB Anteile in ernste Schieflagen, was das besonders für den Mittelstand bedeutet kann man leicht erahnen..... ) eher einen bzw. den Spitzenplatz der Problemliste belegt..... Updadte: EZB pumpt Rekordbetrag in den Markt FTD & Spanish banks to get €90 billion bailout


ECB pumps €442bn into banking system FT
The European Central Bank on Wednesday pumped hundreds of billions of euros in one-year loans into the eurozone’s weakened banking system, making record amounts of emergency finance available in a bid to unlock credit markets and revive the region’s economies.

In a dramatic step dubbed “stimulus by stealth” in financial markets, the ECB lent €442.2bn for 12 months to more than 1,100 banks at its current benchmark interest rate of 1 per cent.

The high demand for the funds, in what was the ECB’s first ever auction for one-year loans, reflected a growing realisation by the banks that emergency funding may not be available again on such favour-able terms.

The central bank’s action could boost the eurozone’s recovery prospects by lowering market interest rates and creating more scope for banks to lend to the private sector.

The ECB action, which attracted 1,121 bidders – more than usual in ECB operations – had an immediate impact in driving down overnight and longer-term market interest rates, though the full effects are still to feed through.

Don Smith, economist at inter-dealer broker Icap, said: “The massive scale and undoubted success of this tender almost entirely reflects the cheapness of the funds on offer.”

The previous largest amount injected in a single ECB operation was €348.6bn in December 2007.

The economic impact will depend on whether demand for liquidity in future ECB market operations is reduced as a result of Wednesday’s action, as well as whether banks step up lending.

“They must pass it along,” Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, an ECB executive board member, said in Rome.

> "...must pass it along" This kind of rhetoric will only be working in China ( see Number Of The Day "Credit Explosion In China" & todays must see Borrowed in China from FT Alphaville ). Probably ( after FT Alphavilles update DEFINITELY ) the NPL from the not so distant future...... Smaghi probably one of the ECB members pressing for "quantitive easing" ( despite intense discussions among the ECB members so far almost non existent ).......

> "...must pass it along" Wird wohl ein Wunschgedanke bleiben..... In China sieht das momentan ganz anders aus ( siehe Number Of The Day "Credit Explosion In China" sowie die aktuellen Daten für Juni Borrowed in China WAHNSINN!). Da wird solchen Wünschen wenn Sie von der richtigen Stelle geäußert werden "bedingungslos" Folge geleistet. Die Chancen das es sich um die faulen Kredite von morgen handelt sind nicht zu unterschätzen ( nach dem Update von FT Alphaville eine "leichte" Untertreibung )...... Unschwer zu erkennen das Smaghi eher dem Camp innerhalb der EZB angehört die PRO "Quantitive Easing" ( bisher trotz intensiver Diskussionen praktisch kaum vorhanden ) sind......

WSJ

By promising a full allocation of all bids on Wednesday, the ECB has effectively passed responsibility for any easing of policy to the banks themselves, giving license to any institution that thinks it can lend the money profitably into the real economy.

AJ via Alea

“If I were a bank I would be gathering up all the furniture to use as collateral to take part.” said Erik Nielsen, European economist at Goldman Sachs.

AMEN!

ECB Tightens Rules On Liquidity Facilities

You know that something was wrong when it was lucrative to dump Australian credit card paper to the ECB..... In general it will be very difficult to shut down the Pandora´s Box of the very broad collateral that all central banks have agreed to accept or at least put up a haircut that is reflecting the underlying risk adequately .... It will be very interesting to see how the central banks balance sheets will look like within a few years...... But compared to what
Chinas central bank is facing Main Bank of China Is in Need of Capital ( stunning !! ) the ECB is looking less foolish on a relative basis ......... :-) One of the reasons why i like gold....

Wenn es sich lohnt australische Kreditkartenforderungen zu verpacken und bei der EZB abzuladen wird es aber auch höchste Zeit das die Bedingungen angepasst werden..... Generell ist festzustellen das es den Zentralbanken rund um den Globus sehr schwer fallen dürfte das breite Spektrum das als Sicherheit akzeptiert wird auf ein gesundes Maß zurückzufahren bzw wirklich dem Risiko angemessenen Abschlägen zu versehen. Möchte mir lieber nicht vorstellen wie die Bilanzen der Zentralbanken in ein paar Jahren aussehen werden. Denke es ist nicht verwegen zu behaupten das sich dort ne Menge recht "zweifelhafter" Papiere wiederfinden werden...... Verglichen mit aktuellen Problemen der chinesischen Zentralbank sieht das ganze aber schon wieder halb so wild aus Main Bank of China Is in Need of Capital ..... Wirklich unfassbar! :-) Einer der der etlichen Gründe warum ich eine Goldposition im Depot für mehr als angemessen halte..... Aus der FT Deutschland EZB wird bei Sicherheiten vorsichtiger

Bank Bond Risk Soars to Five-Month High as ECB Tightens Lending
Sept. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The cost of protecting European bank bonds from default rose to the highest in five months after the European Central Bank tightened its criteria for lending.

The ECB will charge banks more to borrow by reducing the amount it lends to as little as 16.4 percent below the face value of collateral pledged, President Jean-Claude Trichet said at a press conference in Frankfurt today. Credit-default swaps on the Markit iTraxx Financial index of subordinated debt for 25 European banks and insurers jumped 12 basis points to 177, the highest since April 1, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. prices at 6 p.m. in London.....

The ECB is changing its requirements to head off abuse by financial institutions. The ECB accepts a broader range of collateral for loans than the Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, including bonds with credit ratings five levels below AAA and asset-backed securities, prompting some firms to create bonds specifically to use as collateral to borrow from the ECB......

`Gaming the System'
ECB council member Yves Mersch said in an interview last month that the central bank is concerned that some financial institutions are ``gaming the system.''

The ECB lent 467 billion euros ($670 billion) last week to banks with operations in the 15-country euro area. Lenders in Spain have almost tripled borrowings from the Frankfurt-based ECB in the past year, the fastest increase in Europe, according to data from the countries' central banks. Spanish banks have stored up 89 billion euros of asset-backed securities to pledge as collateral, according to UniCredit SpA.

Bonds backed by mortgages and other assets accounted for 18 percent of the ECB's loan collateral at the end of 2007, up from 4 percent in 2004, Fitch Ratings data show.

Sydney-based Macquarie Group Ltd. sold bonds backed by Australian consumer loans in June through a special-purpose company in Ireland, enabling investors to use the notes as collateral to borrow from the ECB.

Haircut
The new rules on collateral, which will take effect from February, will apply a discount of 12 percent on asset-backed bonds, up from as little as 2 percent, Trichet said. Bonds that don't trade or are difficult to value will have an additional so-called haircut of 5 percent, Trichet said. The ECB will lend 5 percent less than the face value of unsecured bank bonds.....

WSJ

ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said the changes would only affect a “small fraction” of the more than one trillion euros of assets banks submit as collateral each year. Asset-backed securities amounted to 16% of the collateral in 2007.

via the FT ( HT Naked Capitalsim )

The changes, which take effect from February 1, include increases in the average “haircuts” applied to asset-backed securities. A haircut is the amount deducted from the market value of a product when judging its value as collateral. In future, a blanket 12 per cent haircut will apply, replacing a previous sliding scale of between 2 per cent and 18 per cent. There will be penalties for asset-backed securities valued using models and for unsecured bank bonds.

Für alle illiquiden ABS nimmt die EZB künftig unabhängig von Laufzeit oder Verzinsung zunächst einen Bewertungsabschlag von 5 Prozent auf den Nominalwert vor und zieht dann zusätzlich einen Risikoabschlag (Haircut) von pauschal zwölf Prozent ab. Damit ergibt sich ein durchschnittlicher Abschlag von 16,4 Prozent. Bisher gelten für solche Papiere nur Haircuts von 2 bis 18 Prozent

The next table is taken from page 39 GUIDELINE OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK and is shwoing the structure before yesterdays announcement

Die nachfolge Tabelle ist von Seite 39 GUIDELINE OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK und zeigt die Aufteilung vor der gestrigen Ankündigung.
Here is the ECB release from yesterday introducing a new category

Hier nun die EZB Veröffentlichung von gestern die zudem eine neue Kategorie einführt

4 September 2008 - Biennial review of the risk control measures in Eurosystem credit operations

With regard to the risk control measures applied to marketable assets, a new liquidity category for marketable assets will be introduced (see Table 6 of the “General Documentation”). This new category IV will be composed of credit institution debt instruments (other than Jumbo and traditional covered bank bonds) that were previously part of category III. Old category IV will be renamed category V. The valuation haircuts applied to eligible marketable assets in the different liquidity categories will be as follows

* Assets in this liquidity category that are given a theoretical value (in accordance with Section 6.5 of the “General Documentation”) will be subject to an additional valuation markdown of 5%

As can be seen from the table, assets in new liquidity category V (former liquidity category IV) will be subject to a haircut of 12% regardless of their residual maturity and coupon structure. This corresponds to the level of haircuts that was previously assigned to assets in this liquidity category with a fixed coupon and a residual maturity of over ten years. Furthermore, assets in this liquidity category that are given a theoretical value (in accordance with Section 6.5 of the “General Documentation”) will be subject to an additional valuation haircut. This haircut will be applied directly to the theoretical value of the asset in the form of a valuation markdown of 5%, which corresponds to an additional haircut of 4.4%

Levels of valuation haircuts applied to eligible marketable assets in relation to fixed coupon and zero coupon instruments (percentages)
	Liquidity categories
	Category I		Category II		Category III		Category IV		Category V
Residual maturity (years)	Fixed coupon	Zero coupon	Fixed coupon	Zero coupon	Fixed coupon	Zero coupon	Fixed coupon	Zero coupon	Fixed or zero coupon
0-1	0.5	0.5	1	1	1.5	1.5	6.5	6.5	12*
1-3	1.5	1.5	2.5	2.5	3	3	8	8
3-5	2.5	3	3.5	4	4.5	5	9.5	10
5-7	3	3.5	4.5	5	5.5	6	10.5	11
7-10	4	4.5	5.5	6.5	6.5	8	11.5	13
>10	5.5	8.5	7.5	12	9	15	14	20

The ECB will no longer accept securities in which the issuer bank or a related party is providing support to the transaction through currency swaps or emergency backstop loans, Trichet said.

It will also require bonds to be publicly rated and for the rankings to be explained in published reports. The securities should have new reports from rating firms every three months.

``The losers are the banks retaining bonds to raise cheap collateral, now the cost will be higher,'' said Luca Jellinek, a London-based strategist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. ``The winners are the rest of the euro system whose collateral has been edged out by retained ABS.''