Naples - The European Central Bank holds interest rates at historic lows in a bid to spur economic growth and bank lending.
After cutting interest rates last month to what it said was "the lower bound", the ECB left its main refinancing rate at 0.05% on Thursday.
President Mario Draghi said the ECB would begin to buy
covered bonds, a form of secured debt, from banks in mid-October and
purchase asset-backed securities (ABS) - bundled loans - at some point
in the fourth quarter of the year.