The European Central Bank threw open its liquidity floodgates again yesterday, pumping up the banks with nearly €530 billion in cheap loans to avert a dangerous credit squeeze.

In the second such cash bonanza in two months, the ECB said 800 banks took €529.5 billion at exceptionally low interest rates in its second three-year long-term refinancing operation, or LTRO.

That beats the €489.19 billion borrowed by 523 banks in a first operation in December but analysts said the move would merely buy time and not be enough on its own to solve the eurozone’s crippling debt crisis.