Philip R. Lane, Member of the ECB Executive Board, spoke on the role of euro liquidity lines at a CF40-Euro50 luncheon, setting out how the European Central Bank supports foreign central banks with euro funding.
The ECB has only domestic counterparties in its refinancing operations, so international repo and swap lines sit alongside its domestic framework. Under the enhanced Eurosystem repo facility, EUREP, the ECB offers standing access in principle to all central banks, unless they are excluded on grounds such as money laundering, terrorist financing or international sanctions.
How the facility works
Loans are priced at the main refinancing operations rate plus a spread set by the Governing Council. Single transaction maturities run from one day to one week and may be extended.
Each individual central bank can borrow up to EUR 50 billion. Central banks can draw from the facility from the fourth quarter of 2026, once they complete onboarding. Swap lines can be deployed against local-currency collateral.
Demand and first participants
More than thirty central banks expressed interest in EUREP over the past six months. The onboarding of the first foreign central banks was completed at the beginning of October.
The ECB’s main refinancing rate stands at 2.50 percent by our market data, as of 04:24 GMT on 21 October, and the rate has been in force since 20 October.
Source: European Central Bank
