Some banks plan on returning LTRO financing to ECB early

Some of Europe's largest banks are already planning on returning the funds they got through the three-year LTROs (long-term refinancing operations) run by the European Central Bank (ECB) according to senior bankers cited in a front page piece in today's Financial Times (FT). These sources suggested that large banks such as Italy's UniCredit, France's BNP Paribas or Société Générale or Spain's La Caixa could end up paying back about a third of the loans equivalent to €80-€100bn in the next 12 months.Thought first installments aren't due until December 2014 and February 2015 on the two LTROs, these banks could start repayment as early as December of this year. One of the European chief executives told the FT that there are two main reasons to repay the loans ahead of schedule: "First, I don't think it will be wise for us all to be paying back everything in three year's time. Second, we need longer-term finance than three years. We've been busy raising it over the past few months, even though we've had to pay a lot more for it."In any case, other banks such as Deutsche Bank and Lloyds have said they plan to keep the "cheap money" for the full term of the loans. Banks led the decliners in Europe today as the sector was down 1.94% by mid-morning.JM