ECB’s battle to lower its interest expense redux

Research evidence excerpt

ECB’s battle to lower its interest expense redux

FICC Research

Interest Rates

27 July 2026

Europe: Money Markets

ECB’s battle to lower its interest

expense redux

Reuters recently reported that the ECB is considering raising Rohan Khanna

MRR and reserve tiering to mitigate its financial losses. We +44 (0) 20 7773 0533

rohan.khanna1@barclays.com

discuss the mechanics of tiering, showing its complexity and Barclays, UK

how it could have significant implications for bond markets.

Increasing MRR may be the least bad option.

Following the ECB's July Governing Council meeting, Reuters reported that the ECB is

considering various options to mitigate its financial losses and a debate within the Governing

Council is expected in the Autumn. This article comes close on the heels of an earlier Reuters

report that suggested the ECB was evaluating raising the minimum reserve requirement

(MRR) for euro area banks from 1% to 2% as a way of reducing its interest expenses. The latest

report also notes an increase in MRR as one of the options on the table and President Lagarde

also mentioned in the ECB's recent press conference that such a change would be discussed.

Other options being discussed include a reserve tiering system, abolishing minimum reserves

and replacing them with a fee while also flagging that more suggestions could surface before a

decision is made. While we are surprised at this latest strand of discussions surrounding the

ECB's financial losses, we continue to see these deliberations as part of the review of the ECB's

operational framework, which was already scheduled to take place this year.

In what follows, we evaluate the potential implications of reserve tiering versus an

increase in MRR. We think implementing tiering with positive rates in an extremely