Impact of Targeted Credit Easing by the ECB. Bank-Level Evidence

Abstract

The interest rate in the second series of ECB targeted longer-term refinancing operations is conditional on a participant-specific lending benchmark. The restrictiveness of this benchmark varies between banks. We employ estimations on a unique micro dataset and investigate the relationship between the benchmark restrictiveness and net lending. We find that a more restrictive benchmark is associated with more total net lending and net lending to non-financial corporates by relatively large banks. Our findings suggest that the design of targeted lending benchmarks influences bank credit flows and that a more binding benchmark would have been even more effective in stimulating bank lending.