Central Bank reliance rises to €153 billion

About a week ago the Central Bank published an update of their balance sheet for February.  This shows that ‘Other Assets’ which is primarily made up of Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) to the Irish banks had unexpectedly increased from €50.1 billion to €70.1 billion.  To get a complete picture of the reliance of the Irish banks on Central Bank funding this figure needed to be added to the monies the banks have accessed directly through the ECB.

In January this was €93.0 billion, giving a total of about €140 billion (not all of the ‘Other Assets’ category is ELA).  Figures released this morning put the February liability with ECB at €85.6 billion,  which puts the total amount borrowed from the central banks at somewhere around €153 billion.

Here are ECB liabilities of domestic banks since the start of 2007.

And here’s the scary one – the Central Bank’s ‘Other Assets’.