At ECB, interest grows in the crisis

The Dutch daily Volkskrantcalculates that the European Central Bank (ECB) has earned €17 billion since the crisis set in. “After the crisis broke out in Europe in September 2008, the ECB granted close to €14,000 billion in loans, on which it made €19.2bn in interest. During the same period, several banks invested these loans with the ECB, so the latter has had to pay them close to €2bn in interest. The difference is what ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet once called ‘our profits’. Outside times of crisis, these profits average €12bn.” De Volkskrant reassures its readers, however, by reminding them that “these profits only exist on paper: the ECB is not going to invest or spend that money” on anything but combating the effects of the crisis. “Europeans can rest assured: their tax monies used to save the banks have not vanished into thin air.”