TLTRO and bank liquidity in the new rate scenario
Fecha: noviembre 2022
Marta Alberni, Ángel Berges and María Rodríguez
TLTRO changes
SEFO, Spanish and International Economic & Financial Outlook, V. 11 N.º 6 (November 2022)
The European Central Bank’s special liquidity facilities known as targeted longer-term refinancing operations, or TLTROs, were designed to be one of the key mechanisms for monetary policy transmission via the banking system by providing the latter with a source of stable long-term funding on highly favourable terms, essential to keeping credit flowing. Although the purpose of those rounds of financing was to boost the provision of credit to the real economy, the truth is lending barely grew, primarily due to scant demand in the context of deep macroeconomic uncertainty, firstly due to ensuing pandemic developments and later due to the energy crisis aggravated by the invasion of Ukraine. The advantageous
TLTRO terms intrinsic in the design of these instruments now clash, however, with the new monetary policy objectives implemented by the ECB to halt inflation: rapid rate hikes and liquidity absorption via the withdrawal of its unconventional asset purchase programmes. The TLTROs, as currently configured as
regards cost and terms, constitute somewhat of an anomaly in the prevailing context of monetary tightening, which is why the ECB, at its last Governing Council meeting, changed the terms applicable to the various rounds of TLTROs in order to better align them with those of other key monetary policy instruments. Beyond the negative impact on their earnings of the elimination of that source of liquidity and the associated carry trade, foreseeably offset by the favourable effect of the rate increases on their net interest margins, the European and Spanish banking systems have sufficient liquidity to handle the maturity or, if they so decide, prepayment of their TLTRO funds thanks to their excess reserves. Meanwhile, growth in retail deposits and funds and bond market issuance is expected to be sufficient to cover the anticipated growth in credit next year.