Irish borrowing ‘still reliant on ECB’

IRISH banks’ borrowing from the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Irish Central Bank inched up in June, as bank deposits fell, in a reminder of the challenges still facing the sector, data showed yesterday.

Ireland’s banks, at the root of the financial crisis, are reliant on central bank loans to fund their day-to-day operations due to tens of billions of euro in deposit outflows and their exclusion from interbank lending markets.

The banks’ ECB borrowing grew to €103 billion as of June 24 from €102.3bn a month earlier.