Enlarge image
Photo: DANIEL ROLAND / AFP
For the first time in a long time, the European Central Bank (ECB) has to offset a loss from its business with its risk provisions.
The bottom line is therefore a "black zero" for 2022, as the ECB announced.
The usual distribution of profits to the national central banks of the euro zone, such as the Bundesbank, will therefore not take place.
In 2021, the ECB had made a small profit of 192 million euros.
The balanced annual result is only possible because the ECB has released 1.6 billion euros from its risk provisions for compensation.
After the approval, the central bank's risk provisions still amount to almost 6.6 billion euros.
On the one hand, the central bank explains the losses with rising interest payments – which it initiated itself, because the background to this development is primarily the rising key interest rates in the currency area.
In addition, the ECB calls precautionary write-downs on its own assets and dollar-denominated assets.
This is justified with the rising yields, ultimately the rising interest rates on the capital markets.
As a result of this development, the prices of existing securities fall, which reduces their value.
In addition to the ECB, many other central banks have also sharply raised their key interest rates in response to high inflation.
The bottom line is that the interest income of the ECB will amount to 900 million euros in 2022, compared to 1.566 billion euros the year before.
The ECB puts the depreciation at 1.8 billion euros, in 2021 it was only 133 million euros.
Personnel costs, on the other hand, fell slightly by EUR 22 million to EUR 652 million.
At EUR 594 million, fee income from financial supervision was slightly more than in the previous year.
The balance sheet total of the entire Eurosystem, ie including the national central banks, which was inflated by securities purchases, fell from 8.564 trillion in the previous year to 7.956 trillion euros.
The decline can be explained primarily by the fact that the commercial banks in the euro area have repaid some of the long-term loans previously extended or some of these loans have expired.
The ECB had also extended the loans during the corona pandemic in order to keep the flow of credit going during the crisis.
However, compared to the Swiss central bank (SNB), the ECB's minus in the past year is small.
The SNB had reported a record loss of CHF 132 billion for 2022, mainly due to its years of foreign currency purchases against the appreciation of the franc.
