Archive - Dec 29, 2011

Following yesterday's surge to an all time record high of EUR 452 billion, which confirmed that virtually all LTRO cash had been redposited back at the ECB to lose 75 bps as per the "inverse carry trade" first presented here, today's update shows that yesterday the cash held by banks at the ECB declined by EUR 15 billion to EUR 437 billion - a delta of just over the amount raised by Italy in its 6 month and Zero Coupon bond issues yesterday. And despite said successful auctions, today the Italian 10 Year BTP is once again over the critical 7% benchmark level, even as Italy prepares to issue between 8 and 11 billion in 3 and 10 Year bonds - an auction which will prove far more challenging as it falls outside the LTRO maturity date and thus leaves banks exposed to non-carry trade covered risk.