ABS: Spanish banks take ECB repo with both hands

It seems they may be using support to grow balance sheets rather than to roll funding.

European banks are issuing asset-backed securities in massive amounts and pledging them to the European Central Bank as collateral on its term repo funding. Since September, more than 50% of European ABS issuance has been used as ECB collateral. With banks bereft of other viable funding options pledging so much to the ECB for repo financing, it will become harder and harder to return those banks to a normal funding environment. “The ECB will keep taking collateral,” says a eurozone banker.