On Monday, December 8, the ECB announced its weekly Main Refinancing Operation. This attracted bids for €217.86 billion from euro area eligible counterparties, which amount was totally allotted, as pre-announced, at a fixed rate equivalent to the new main refinancing rate of 2.50 per cent.
Also, on the same day, the Eurosystem and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) conducted a EUR/CHF foreign exchange swap, with a seven-day maturity, to provide Swiss franc liquidity against the euro. This operation attracted bids for €12.79 billion, which amount was also fully allotted at a fixed price of -6.19 swap points.
The following day, the ECB conducted a Special Longer-Term Refinancing Operation (STRO) with a 42-day maturity. In this STRO, the ECB received bids for €134.95 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed rate equivalent to the ECB's main refinancing rate of 2.50 per cent.
That same day, the ECB announced two supplementary Longer-Term Refinancing Operations (LTROs), one with a maturity of 91 days and the other with a maturity of 182-days. In the case of the former the ECB received bids for € 55.92 billion, while in the 182-day LTRO it received bids for € 38.08 billion. All amounts were again fully allotted. Both LTROs were conducted at a fixed rate equivalent to the ECB's main refinancing rate of 2.50 per cent.
On the same day, being the end of the reserve deposit maintenance period, the ECB also conducted an overnight liquidity-absorbing Fine Tuning Operation.
This was carried out at a variable rate with a maximum rate of 3.25 per cent. In this operation the ECB received bids for €152.66 billion and accepted bids for €137.46 billion, or 90.04 per cent of the total amount bid for. The marginal rate on the operation was set at 3.05 per cent.
The following day, the ECB, in conjunction with the US Federal Reserve, conducted a seven-day US dollar funding operation through collateralised lending. This attracted bids for $57.43 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed rate of 1.24 per cent. In parallel with this operation, the Eurosystem also offered seven-day dollar liquidity through a EUR/USD foreign exchange swap operation which attracted bids for $0.82 billion, which amount was fully allotted at a fixed price of -1.75 swap points.
In the domestic primary market for Treasury bills, the Treasury invited tenders for 91-day bills maturing on March 13, next year. Bids for €29.60 million were submitted, but none were accepted. Since €3.42 million worth of bills matured during the week, the outstanding balance of Treasury bills decreased by €3.42 million to €363.23 million.
Today the Treasury will invite tenders for 182-day bills maturing on June 19, next year.
Treasury bill trading on the Malta Stock Exchange amounted to €4.33 million during the week, with €3.40 million trades being conducted by the Central Bank of Malta in its role as market maker. Off-Exchange transactions amounted to €912,000.