Amsterdam - The European Central Bank (ECB) made 17 billion euros (24.26 billion dollars) thanks to the financial crisis, Dutch daily newspaper Volkskrant reported on Tuesday. A spokesman for the Frankfurt-based ECB, however, said the bank would not comment on the figures.
Volkskrant calculated the ECB received 19.2 billion euros in interest originating from the nearly 14,000 billion euros in loans it provided since September 2008. Most banks subsequently deposited their loans with the ECB, which paid them 2 billion euros in interest.
One 442-billion-euros loan provided to the bigger European banks in June turned out to be particularly profitable for the ECB, Volkskrant wrote.
Interest on this one-year loan was 1 per cent. The ECB provided the loan with the intention that the banks would lend the money to corporations and consumers, to stimulate the European economy.
The banks however deposited three quarters of the funding with the ECB, which paid them 0.25 per cent interest. The remaining 0.75 per cent can be considered the ECB's profit.
But banking industry sources said that while the ECB has clearly profited from its recent operations, there are a whole series of factors that eventually impact on the bank's bottom line.
Volkskrant emphasized it only concerns a "paper profit" because the central bank has no plans to invest or spend the money. Consumers can however be comforted that taxpayer money used to save the banks "did not get lost", the newspaper wrote.
