June 24 (Bloomberg) -- The European Central Bank said it will lend banks 442 billion euros ($621 billion) for 12 months, the most it has ever allotted in an auction, as it steps up efforts to unblock credit markets in the 16-nation euro region.

The Frankfurt-based ECB filled all bids in its first offer of 12-month loans to banks at the current benchmark interest rate of 1 percent. The 1,121 banks that participated receive the funds tomorrow. The euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, for 12-month loans fell to 1.57 percent today, a record low.

“It’s even more than our most optimistic scenario would have suggested,” said Christoph Rieger, a fixed income strategist at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt. “There is so much liquidity around that it will push money-market rates to new record lows.”

The ECB, battling Europe’s worst recession since World War II, is concentrating its efforts on lubricating the banking system, which accounts for about three quarters of company financing in the region. The central bank has cut interest rates to the lowest on record and will next month start buying 60 billion euros of covered bonds to help free up credit.

Today’s allotment is “broadly equivalent to one third of all sovereign issuance in the euro zone this year,” said Erik Nielsen, chief European economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in London. “It’s a big number, providing the intended monetary easing by stealth. I suspect that the ECB is very pleased.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aZhZvQc0E_Eg
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