FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank announced on Monday
that no new bond purchases were settled through its Securities Market
Programme last week.

With no new bond bond buys settled in the week ended July 22 and
E245 million in bonds having matured, the ECB said it will once again
seek to drain E74.0 billion next week 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.

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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