The European Central Bank relaxed rules on acceptable collateral to ease credit conditions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The bank's governing council Tuesday adopted temporary collateral easing measures to help eurozone banks to continue to provide liquidity and credit as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to ravage markets and businesses.
Among the changes is a temporary increase in the ECB's risk tolerance, a notice on its website said.
"These measures are temporary for the duration of the pandemic crisis and linked to the duration" of the ECB's Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program, a €750 billion ($810 billion) temporary asset purchase program announced in March. "They will be re-assessed before the end of 2020, also considering whether there is a need to extend some of these measures to ensure that eurosystem counterparties' participation in its liquidity providing operations is not adversely affected."
The ECB also adopted a 20% reduction in collateral valuation haircuts — the difference between what an asset is valued at and its worth as collateral for a loan — and said it will accept Greek sovereign debt as collateral in eurozone credit operations.
