ECB adds to quantitative easing list, extending crisis tools
LONDON (Reuters) - The European Central Bank added 13, mainly infrastructure-focused, government-linked agencies to its 1 trillion euro quantitative easing (QE) buying list on Thursday.
It said when it started QE that it would regularly review what it could buy.
A breakdown by analysts of the newly eligible bond issuers showed it gave the ECB an extra 66 billion euros ($73.10 billion) of potential debt to buy from, with just over 50 billion in its preferred 2 to 30-year maturity range.
For full list of eligible agencies click: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/mopo/implement/omt/html/pspp.en.html
The largest newcomers are from Italy, France and Austria and analysts at ABN Amro said it also opened the door to the euro zone's national central banks adding new corporate debt to their own, more bespoke, buying lists.
Benoit Coeure, one of the ECB's top policymakers, said this week there were new anti-crisis tools that could be used if necessary, while ECB meeting minutes this year have also flagged options such a bank bond purchases.
ABN Amro added that if the central bank would like to add more utility-focused assets to its eligible universe, it could add up to an extra 100 billion euro based on IBOXX classification and the amount of investment grade assets on tap.
(This story has been refiled to fix garble)
(Reporting by Marc Jones Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
