ECB's Wunsch pushes back on proposal to increase bank charges

ECB policymakers are now debating whether to require banks to hold more of their excess liquidity in an unremunerated account, partly to reduce the ECB's own financial losses and partly to tighten financing conditions at a time of high inflation.

"There are now 'ongoing discussions' about applying a higher minimum required reserve ratio – the MRR ratio – while of course keeping required reserves unremunerated," Wunsch, Belgium's central bank chief, told a conference in Brussels. "Honestly, the reasoning here is not very clear, or convincing, to me."

The ECB created trillions of euros of excess liquidity via bond buys in the pre-pandemic decade when rates were at or below zero, and it must now pay a hefty interest charge to commercial banks when they deposit this cash back at the bank.

This has pushed up financial losses, especially at Germany's Bundesbank, which has stopped paying a dividend into the government budget and may not have cash for such dividends until the next decade.

"If the goal is to limit our losses, the MRR ratio would become a quasi-fiscal instrument," Wunsch said. "And fiscal policy is typically not a role allocated to the central bank."

Wunsch said that if banks are now taxed more heavily on this income, they may not be keen to take part in a future bond purchase scheme and this could then hurt the credibility of a central bank operation.

Minimum reserve charges have come into focus this year as the ECB is raising interest rates to combat high inflation. This is also raising national central banks' interest expense, as there are still over €2.1 trillion of excess liquidity in the financial system.