PARIS (Reuters) – The European Central Bank intends to be major buyer of commercial paper when it enters that market this week, ECB policymaker Francois Villeroy de Galhau said in an interview with French website Wansquare.
The ECB’s latest package of crisis measures opens the way for it to buy debt of less than six months for the first time down to debt as short as one month.
“We are determined to be an operational, fair and significant actor on the commercial paper market starting this week in order to bring confidence back,” Villeroy said told Wansquare.
“That way, others will be encouraged to come back quickly,” added Villeroy, who is also head of the Bank of France.
He said the ECB intended to buy non-bank corporate commercial paper on both the secondary and primary market, except for public companies.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; editing by Jason Neely)
