ECB grants 75 billion euros in exceptional one-year loans

The European Central Bank said on Wednesday that it lent eurozone
banks a little more than 75 billion euros (110 billion dollars) for
one year in an exceptional move aimed at boosting the economy. It
was the second time the ECB offered an unlimited amount of funds for
12 months at its benchmark rate of 1.0 percent, but the amount
taken up was nearly six times less than the record 442 billion euros
taken up in late June. That suggested conditions on interbank money
markets have improved significantly in the past three months as
economies worldwide rebound from the worst global slump since the
Great Depression. The one-year loans are the most spectacular of the
ECB's raft of so-called enhanced credit measures designed to pump
funds into the economy and unblock credit channels between
commercial banks and the wider economy.