The use of ECB liquidity

Blog post

The use of ECB liquidity

The Eurosystem’s regular open market operations consist of one-week liquidity-providing operations (MROs), and three-month liquidity-providing operati

Publishing date: 09 June 2016
Authors: Alvaro Leandro

German banks were the main receivers of Eurosystem liquidity prior to the crisis, receiving 60% of total liquidity provided in 2007.

However, at the height of the debt crisis, in July 2012, Spanish, Italian and French banks were the biggest users of the Eurosystem’s liquidity operations: out of the almost €1.2 trillion of liquidity given to euro-area banks, 34% was given to Spanish banks, 24% to Italian banks, and 15% to French banks. Since then, the amount of liquidity being provided by the Eurosystem has declined to 2009 levels, to roughly €500 billion, but Italian, Spanish and French banks remain the largest receivers, with 30%, 26% and 17% respectively.

About the authors

Alvaro Leandro

Álvaro Leandro Fernández-Gil, a Portuguese and Spanish citizen, worked at Bruegel as a Research Assistant from November 2014 until July 2016 in the area of Global and European Macroeconomics. Prior to this, Álvaro worked as a Research Assistant at “la Caixa” Research. He has also worked as an intern at the Sustainable Development Network of the World Bank. He holds an undergraduate degree in Economics from the University of Sussex, and a master in Specialised Economic Analysis from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).

The subject of his Master's thesis was the inter-connectivity in the financial system, and its consequences for systemic risk and regulation. At the University of Sussex he wrote a dissertation on Political Business Cycles.

Álvaro’s research interests include Macroeconomics, International Finance and Political Economy.

He is fluent in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.