Banks borrowed the most in more than seven years from the European Central Bank at its emergency rate.
Financial institutions borrowed €24.6 billion ($33.9 billion) on October 3rd at the central bank's marginal lending rate of 5.25 per cent, which is one percentage point above its benchmark rate for regular auctions.
That's the most since February 2001. At the same time, banks deposited €38.9 billion with the ECB, the Frankfurt-based central bank said in a statement this morning.
The deposit rate is 3.25 per cent.
Commercial banks are refusing to lend to each other after the US housing slump caused the collapse of New York-based Lehman Brothers and forced governments to bail out banks in the US and Europe.
Central banks including the Federal Reserve and the ECB are injecting billions into global money markets in an effort to keep them functioning.
As some market players are flooded with cash after the ECB's continued liquidity injections, the ECB also offered to drain €220 billion from money markets at a fixed rate of 4.25 per cent.
This is the fourth drain since banks' deposits with the ECB jumped to a record €102.8 billion on September 30th.
Bloomberg