Brussels, 21/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 21 December, the European Central Bank (ECB) lent €489 billion to 523 banks in a special three-year loan scheme announced earlier this month. This was higher than expected by analysts, who had been predicting lending of between €250bn and €450bn.
The banks borrowed a total of €489.1bn from the ECB against assets lodged with the bank at a rate of 1%. The ECB also lent €29.7bn in three-month loans to 72 banks, and €33bn to 34...