ECB says banks to return 8.5 billion euros in crisis loans

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Banks will return 8.5 billion euros (7 billion pounds) in crisis loans to the European Central Bank next week after it started offering them new four-year loans at cheap rates.

The Nov. 26 repayment is more than the almost 2 billion euros banks repaid this week and more than the 3.5 billion euros money market traders polled by Reuters had expected. [ECB/REFI]

Banks are returning funds they took from the ECB in late 2011 and early 2012 to ride out funding strains at the height of the debt crisis. The ECB started offering them new long-term loans in September and will hand out another tranche on Dec. 11.

Banks still hold just under 300 billion euros of the old crisis loans, and lenders are expected to move them into the new ECB loan facility before they mature in January and February.

For now though, it is still cheaper for banks to rely on the ECB's regular refinancing operations, where they can fund themselves at record low rates of 0.05 percent. They have to pay an additional 10 basis points for the new four-year loans.

As a result, the ECB's first offer of the new loans, known as TLTROs, fell flat, with banks taking just 82.6 billion euros, less than expected.

They can potentially borrow up to 400 billion euros in the September and December offers combined.

On Friday, the ECB said six banks would repay 903 million euros from the first LTRO on Nov. 26 and a further 12 banks would pay back a total 7.639 billion euros from the second LTRO.

(Reporting By John O'Donnell; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)