Uneasy ECB may consider bank-bond buying

The departing ECB president Draghi(pic) is certainly qualified.

LONDON: Europe’s bond investors are starting to ask whether the European Central Bank (ECB) will pair a potential rate cut with unprecedented purchases of senior bank debt.

Policy makers have previously shied away from buying unsecured bank bonds, not least because of possible conflicts of interest stemming from the ECB’s role in regulating banks it would be purchasing notes from. Still, they may consider it at a policy meeting next week, particularly if they vote to further lower negative interest rates that have been squeezing lenders’ profits for years.