UPDATE 1-Loans to Irish lenders bloat central bank's books
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/30/...ancialsSector&rpc=43
Mon May 30, 2011 7:38am EDT
* Says corrected mistakes on some security valuations
DUBLIN, May 30 (Reuters) - The burden of supporting struggling Irish lenders helped bloat the balance sheet of the country's central bank by 80 billion euros last year, more than half Ireland's annual economic output, data on Monday showed.
Irish banks, at the root of the country's financial crisis, are reliant on the support of the European Central Bank (ECB) and their own central bank for day-to-day funding after fears over the sector's future sparked deposit outflows and shut banks out of debt markets.
The central bank's annual report, published on Monday, showed that loans and controversial exceptional liquidity assistance (ELA) to banks in Ireland totalled 182 billion euros at the end of last year compared with 106 billion euros at the end of 2009.
Currently, the total amount lent by the ECB in its open market operations totals 417 billion euros.
The Irish central bank provides emergency loans, totalling around 50 billion euros at the end of last year, to banks when their collateral does not meet stricter ECB requirements.
The central bank said its emergency loans were covered by collateral, including sovereign debt and other forms of security, and it had taken haircuts of up to 80 percent on some of the securities.
The highest discount that the ECB has applied to securities it has accepted as collateral was 69.5 percent.
But central bank Governor Patrick Honohan admitted that the central bank had made mistakes in valuing a number of securities held as collateral after Germany's Der Spiegel magazine contacted them about discrepancies relating to securities submitted by Depfa Bank. [ID:nLDE74M1R2]
"The researcher for Der Spiegel did pinpoint an error in the valuation in a number of securities both here and in other central banks," Honohan told a news conference. "These were reviewed and corrected."
"The tone of the article was that this is a huge issue but the ABS (asset-backed securities) that were focused on actually amount to a very small proportion of the securities that are presented to the ECB as collateral," he said.
"In fact, in the case of Ireland I understand that approximately 10 billion euros only of advances are made against this class of securities. It's not really a major issue."
In its annual report, the central bank said it had a commitment from the Irish government that it would cover any shortfall if the collateral had to be sold to cover loan losses.
"In addition, the bank received formal comfort from the minister for finance such that any shortfall on the liquidation of collateral is made good," it said.
The Irish central bank's emergency loans to banks based in the country hit a peak of 70 billion euros in February. They fell back to 54 billion euros at the end of April, largely due to the country's debt agency temporarily placing deposits with some lenders. [ID:nLDE74C1OR]
Overall, Irish-based banks' borrowings from the ECB and the Irish central bank stood at 160 billion euros at the end of April. (Reporting by Dublin bureau; Editing by John Stonestreet and Susan Fenton)
* Has taken haircuts of up to 80 pct on some collateral


