LONDON—The European Central Bank said it handed out €529.5 billion $712.7 billion in cheap, three-year loans to 800 lenders, the central bank’s latest effort to arrest a financial crisis now entering its third year. Wednesday’s loans were on top of the €489 billion of similar loans the ECB dispensed to 523 banks in late December. The ECB’s goal is both to avoid an escalating crisis as banks struggle to pay off maturing debts and to mitigate a sharp pullback in bank lending to customers across ailing European economies……about two-thirds of the loans went to banks in three euro-zone countries — two in the “periphery,” likely Spain and Italy, and one in the “core,” likely France or Germany.
via ECB Allots €529.5 Billion in Long-Term Refinancing Operation – WSJ.com.