欧洲银行回购市场缩水

The market for a key funding instrument for banks in Europe has shrunk, highlighting how reliant financial institutions in the region have become on European Central Bank support.

欧洲银行一个关键的融资工具市场出现萎缩，突显了这个地区金融机构对欧洲央行(ECB)支持的依赖程度。

The market for European repurchase – repo – transactions contracted by an estimated 14.2 per cent year-on-year in the six months to June 30, based on constant samples over the period.

在截至6月30日的6个月中，根据这一期间的恒定样本估算，欧洲回购交易市场同比萎缩14.2%。

The total value of outstanding repo contracts – in which banks pledge their securities as collateral for short-term loans from money market funds or other investors – stood at €5.6bn in June, according to the latest twice yearly snapshot of the market by the European Repo Council of the International Capital Market Association. Richard Comotto, senior visiting fellow at the ICMA centre at Reading University, said that while repo markets were vulnerable to swings, the most recent contraction highlighted how dependent banks in the region had become on ECB funding.

国际资本市场协会(ICMA)欧洲回购委员会(European Repo Council)最近公布的半年度市场简报显示，6月份未偿付回购合约的总价值为56亿欧元。在回购合约中，银行用有价证券作抵押，从货币市场基金或者其他投资者那里借入短期贷款。雷丁大学(Reading Univercity)ICMA中心高级访问学者理查德·科莫托(Richard Comotto)表示，尽管回购市场本身非常容易波动，但最近的收缩突显了欧洲地区的银行对欧洲央行资金的严重依赖程度。

Eurozone banks borrowed more than a €1tn from the ECB in December and February via its three-year longer-term refinancing operations. The LTRO has reduced the reliance by some banks on funding from the repo market.

在欧洲央行的三年期长期再融资操作中，欧元区银行去年12月份和今年2月份总共从欧洲央行借入了超过了1万亿欧元。长期再融资操作已经降低了一些银行对回购市场资金的依赖度。

Mr Comotto said the worry was that if banks continued to sideline the repo market in the long-run it would lead to a capacity problem as the market “shrivels, ultimately making it more difficult to wean lenders off ECB funding.

科莫托指出，人们担忧的是，长远来看，如果银行继续把回购市场作为次要选择，随着这一市场的“萎缩，将会引发其提供融资的能力问题，最终将导致银行更加难以摆脱对欧洲央行资金的依赖。

The share of interbank tri-party repo market – in which a custodian bank helps to administer a repo agreement between two parties – also dropped slightly.

由托管银行在双方之间协助执行回购协议的银行间三方回购市场的份额也略有下降。

However, Mr Comotto said there was anecdotal evidence to suggest that an increasing number of insurers, pension funds and companies were using the repo market as an alternative to bank deposits.

然而，科莫托表示，不确切的证据表明，越来越多的保险公司、养老基金和公司都在将回购市场当做银行存款的替代品。

While the overall size of the repo market is still above the record low that followed the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2010, the figures show how the eurozone financial crisis is altering the way banks behave.

虽然回购市场的整体规模仍然高于2010年雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)破产之后的历史低点，但数据确实表明，欧元区金融危机是如何改变了银行行为。

Banks in countries such as Spain and Italy have become more reliant on central bank funding after effectively being locked out of capital markets as funding costs have soared during the crisis.

由于危机期间融资成本大幅上涨，西班牙和意大利等国一些银行实际上已经被拒于资本市场门外，因而这些银行对央行资金的依赖程度越来越深。