ECB's Lane in Shanghai: up to €50 billion for central banks outside the euro area
Through the enhanced EUREP repo facility, foreign central banks can borrow euros from the fourth quarter. More than 30 have shown interest – the ECB hopes for a stronger global role for the euro.
Archive image · Photo: DXR / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped and resized)
ECB Executive Board member Philip Lane promoted the European Central Bank's new euro liquidity lines in Shanghai. Through the enhanced EUREP repo facility, central banks outside the euro area will have standing access to euro loans against collateral from the fourth quarter of 2026, up to 50 billion euros per central bank. More than 30 central banks have already shown interest, Lane said on Wednesday at an event of the CF40 think tank and the Euro50 group.
"The provision of liquidity is a basic task for a central bank," Lane said. Because the ECB lends only to banks in the euro area, repo and swap lines fill a gap and limit spillovers when euro funding suddenly becomes scarce abroad. The loans are priced at the main refinancing rate plus a spread. Swap lines, which require no euro collateral, remain reserved for highly rated jurisdictions.
Lane also sees the lines as a lever for the euro's international role: they bolster confidence in the currency and could raise demand for euro-denominated bonds. Wider use of the euro also extends the reach of monetary policy and makes euro area import prices less sensitive to external shocks. Lane stressed that he was expressing his own views, not those of the ECB Governing Council.