Bank borrowing in ECB loan programme beats expectations

The European Central Bank pumped more than twice the expected liquidity into the financial system Thursday via private-sector loans, data showed. The Frankfurt-based central bank said 143 banks had borrowed 97.8 billion euros ($104 billion) under the third round of a lending programme aimed at boosting the moribund eurozone economy and halting a stubborn slowing of inflation. The ECB designed the TLTRO programme as a way to persuade banks to lend money to small and medium-sized businesses and ge