FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank announced on Monday
that it had settled E3.952 billion in bond buys last week, down from the
E9.793 billion on purchases made in the week previous.

With E69 million in bonds having matured, the new bond purchases
settled in the week ending September 23 will bring the amount of
liquidity that the central bank will look to drain to E156.5 billion to
renew the sterilization of the bonds still on its balance sheet. It will
do so through a quick tender to collect one-week term deposits on
September 27.

The draining operation, to be conducted on Tuesday at 9:30 GMT,
will be in the form of a variable-rate tender with a maximum bid rate of
1.5%, the central bank said. The liquidity will be held at the bank for
one week as a term deposit. The fixed-term deposits can be used as
collateral in the Eurosystem’s credit operations.

The central bank also said it intends to hold another liquidity-
absorbing operation next week.

— Frankfurt bureau: +49 69 720 142; email: frankfurt@marketnews.com —

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