FRANKFURT (MNI) – The European Central Bank boosted its earnings to
E1.89 billion last year from E1.33 billion in 2010, of which E1.17
billion was set aside as provisions for foreign exchange rate, interest
rate, credit and gold price risks, ECB President Mario Draghi said in
the bank’s annual report released Wednesday.
Risk provisions were thus increased to the ceiling of E6.36
billion, the value of the ECB’s capital paid up by the national central
banks (NCBs) at the end of last year. A net profit of E728 million was
distributed to NCBs according to the capital shares in the ECB.
Net interest income last year amounted to E1.999 billion, up from
E1.422 billion in 2010, thanks to income from the bond buys of the
Securities Markets Program and bank notes in circulation.
The depreciation of the euro against the yen and the dollar lifted
unrealized foreign exchange gains to E7.976 million, while the rise in
the gold price led to unrealized gains of E15.718 billion.
“No impairment losses were recorded at the year-end,” the report
said. “Regarding the ECB’s holdings of Greek government bonds purchased
under the Securities Markets Programme, the private sector involvement
initiative announced in 2011 was not expected to result in changes to
any future contractual cash flows associated with these holdings, as it
was designed to voluntarily restructure debt held by the private
sector.”
Total liabilities rose to E230.87 billion last year from E163.52
billion in 2010. The main increase was a E76 billion increase in
liabilities to non-euro area residents denominated in euro. The main
item was a E64.2 billion temporary dollar swap line with the Federal
Reserve for short-term dollar funding.
Securities held from bond purchases amounted to E22.8 billion,
including E4.8 billion from the first covered-bond purchase program,
E212 million from the second cover-bond program and E17.8 billion from
the Securities Markets Program.
[TOPICS: M$$EC$,M$X$$$,M$$CR$,MGX$$$]
