PRODUCT PROFILE

Latest Dublin Prices

Irish bank reliance on ECB funds holds

Friday, October 12 14:52:52

Irish banks' reliance on emergency funding from the ECB was little changed last month with outstanding loans of E120 billion, new figures from the Central Bank reveal.

Banks had E79.1 billion in outstanding loans from the European Central Bank as of September 28, unchanged from August.

The figures also show that emergency loans from the Central Bank fell slightly to E40.6 billion from E40.8 billion a month before.

The country's banks are heavily dependent on loans from the ECB and the Central Bank to run their day-to-day operations.

Under the EU/IMF bailout they must shrink their balance sheets to ease that exposure, which peaked at E187 billion in February 2011.

Meanwhile, separate Central Bank figures show that interest rates on both mortgages and personal loans have fallen over the past year.

The Central Bank said the average interest rate on outstanding mortgage debt was just over 2.8pc by the end of August, down from 3pc at the beginning of the year.

Interest rates on non-mortgage debt owed by Irish residents have fallen from 6.3pc to 5.7pc over the past year.