ECB’s Enria unsure banks will dip into capital buffers

Anxiety over investor and rating agency reaction may limit banks’ use of Covid relief measures

Andrea Enria: “There could be a concern from banks to be seen as the first to delve into the buffers"

Photo: ECB/Flickr

The chair of the European Central Bank’s single supervisory mechanism (SSM), Andrea Enria, says banks might be reluctant to go below their minimum capital buffer requirements due to fears of investors and credit rating agencies reacting negatively. That potentially undermines the usefulness of the leeway they have been granted by regulators, in a bid to keep banks lending even as coronavirus freezes the European economy.

“There could be a concern from banks to be seen as the first to delve into