Bank deposits at ECB rebound, bond buys top 18 bln eur

The amount of cash deposited by banks at the European Central Bank rebounded, data showed on Thursday, after the ECB returned 170 billion euros temporarily siphoned from the system earlier in the week.

The ECB said commercial banks deposited 59.701 billion euros at the 16-country bloc's central bank overnight, compared to 43.655 billion previously and 147.218 billion before the ECB drained cash on Tuesday.

In contrast, 119 million was borrowed by banks overnight, down from 297 million euros.

The ECB's 60 billion euro covered bond buying programme also continued to make progress. The total value of bonds purchased to-date reached 18.122 billion euros, up from 17.959 billion euros. It leaves the ECB almost a third of the way through its plan.

The amounts parked at the ECB's deposit facility have been high since it flooded money markets with almost half a trillion euros in the first of three planned injections of one-year funds at the end of June.

It dumped a further 75 billion euros of one-year money into the system in the second instalment at the beginning of the month.

The ECB and the 16 euro zone national central banks are buying euro-denominated covered bonds - debt backed by a pool of assets such as mortgage loans that remain on the issuing bank's balance sheet - over the next year, from both primary and secondary markets.