The ECB priced its cheap bank loans by how much banks lend

With inflation below target and bank lending weak, the ECB announced TLTRO III in March 2019 and detailed it in June: quarterly operations from September 2019 to March 2021, each with a two-year (later three-year) maturity, letting banks borrow up to 30% of their eligible loan books.

The interest rate starts at 10 basis points above the main refinancing rate; banks whose net lending exceeds their benchmark get a lower rate, down to the deposit-facility rate. The maximum discount requires lending 2.5% above benchmark — the price literally falls as lending grows.

Markets read it as a deliberate incentive: banks that merely hoarded the money paid more, while expanding lenders got funding below the deposit rate — Credit Suisse estimated minus 30 basis points for strong lenders.

Tie the funding price to lending performance

The rate discount rewards new lending rather than past loan stock.

Banks self-select: each decides whether the discount is worth expanding credit.

The benchmark compares each bank to its own history, so the incentive is personalized.

Running at up to 30% of loan books makes the subsidy large enough to matter.

Make the subsidy contingent on measured behavior: when the discount is earned by performance, banks do the policy targeting themselves.

The September 2019 recalibration cut the rate further and extended maturity to three years; TLTRO III became a core cheap-funding channel for euro-area banks, and lending-linked pricing became the model for keeping central bank money tied to credit.