European Central Bank News

Why one earth does the European Central Bank allow member financial institutions to deposit cash at 0.25 percent? Last night nearly 770bn sat dead in Frankfurt while the rest of Europe cries out for stimulus and small business beg for liquidity.

A sculpture showing the Euro currency sign is seen in front of the European Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt Feb.

A key borrowing rate is sinking to a 66-year low as fear over Europe roils global markets.

The numbers released Wednesday show that the 1 trillion in emergency loans from the ECB to commercial banks is not reaching consumers and businesses in the form of loans.

Los valores del banco espaA ol Bankia son mostrados en pantallas en la Casa de Bolsa de Madrir, el lunes 28 de mayo del 2012.

A Spanish plan to recapitalise Bankia, the troubled lender, by indirectly tapping the European Central Bank for cash, was bluntly rejected as unacceptable by the ECB, European officials said.

A pedestrian passes a "Grexit" headline on a newspaper displayed at a street kiosk in Athens.

ARTHUR BEESLEY in BrusselsSPAIN ENDURED another day of turmoil as the European Central Bank rebuffed calls from the Madrid authorities to revive its emergency interventions to stabilise bond markets.The increasingly uncertain outlook for the country comes as the European Commission prepares today to unveil detailed economic policy recommendations ... (more)

Data published by the European Central Bank on Monday showed that the bank did not intervene to buy bonds of eurozone nations last week, despite recent renewed tensions in sovereign debt markets.

European Union countries could be obliged to bail out one another's struggling banks, according to a draft EU law that marks a big step towards greater EU financial integration likely to upset some members, particularly Germany.

Until recently, the idea of issuing Eurobonds was dismissed as politically infeasible because it would in effect commit the EU's financially most prudent members to guaranteeing the loans of its most profligate ones.

The appalling suicide of a mother and son in Athens again underscores the social nightmare being visited on Greece by the troika-the European Union , the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund .

Spain's IBEX 35 index remains the only major European market in the red this morning, falling around 12 points, or 0.2 percent, to 6,389.4. Banks, once again, are the lead decliners with state-owned Bankia falling another 6 percent.

May. 29, 2012 - Simon Grose-Hodge, head of investment advisory at LGT Bank in Singapore, talks about the outlook for the U.S. and European economies and currencies.

Greece handed 18bn to its four biggest banks yesterday, an official said, allowing the stricken lenders to regain access to European Central Bank funding.

In matters of European money, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has cut a distinctly unconvincing figure in recent months.

Translation: The Rich Get Richer. Stop poverty wages. Bankia, Spain's fourth largest bank, asked the government for a 19 billion bail out on Friday night.

Bond investors say they could stop funding Europe's fragile banks if rules designed to insulate them from shocks are put in place, making financial institutions even more vulnerable to the debt crisis and possibly more reliant on taxpayer money.

Bankia's president, Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri. It has asked Madrid for a 19bn in financial support just as a credit rating agency downgraded it to junk status.

I. U.S. Recession Could to Follow Greek Exit from Euro If Greece leaves the euro, the U.S. economy could easily slip into recession, but given the long term consequences of Europe struggling with a currency regime that makes little sense, that cost is worth bearing.