LONDON, May 10 (Reuters) - Britain's Lloyds Banking Group said it will next week repay the remaining 3.5 billioneuros ($4.6 billion) it took under the European Central Bank'slong-term funding plan.
Lloyds took 13.5 billion euros of cash from the ECB's 3-yearlong-term refinancing operations (LTRO). It repaid 10 billioneuros in February and said on Friday it will repay the remainderby May 15, following this month's sale of its Spanish retailbusiness.
The ECB lent more than 1 trillion euros to banks in twotranches in late 2011 and early 2012 to help avert a creditcrunch, and Europe's banks have repaid just over 270 billioneuros this year as their liquidity has improved.