Sober Look

The euro area banking system excess reserves are continuing to decline - touching the lowest level since 2011. Just to put this in p...

The decline in euro area banks' excess reserves has been quite spectacular. Excess reserve levels are back to 2011 levels. Source:...

Spain's banking system continues to struggle, with Bankia reporting more losses and tapping the government's bailout vehicle. Th...

The markets were not impressed by today's policy announcement from the ECB. Sovereign spreads are wider, the euro is lower by 1.1%, an...

The ECB continues its relentless march of balance sheet expansion. For the first time the total assets of the Eurosystem have exceeded €3....

Some have asked to see a longer period chart of the MRO (main lending facility) balances at the ECB . Here is the chart from the beginning...

In his weekly update on the ECB balance sheet, Kostas points out (among other developments) an increase in lending to banks (now at €1.2...

Here is a nice chart from Barclays that shows how much the various nations' banking systems rely on ECB funding. The data is as of the...

Yesterday Kostas Kalevras pointed out a big spike in the ECB's MRO (main refinancing operations) facility. MRO is the central bank...

In 2010 the Irish government bailed out (recapitalized) the Irish banks with 30bn euros. The government could not easily raise these funds...