FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Banks will return 7.536 billion euros $10.40 billion (6.1 billion pounds) in crisis loans to the European Central Bank next week, more than expected, but still less than the double-digit returns last month, as the extra cash in the system reaches critical levels.
The amount banks will repay on April 23 is less than this week's repayments of 8.265 billion euros, but is above the 6 billion forecast in a Reuters poll.
In March, banks repaid in total more than 40 billion euros, driven in part by the expiry of some of the sovereign bonds that they had bought with the cheap money.
Lenders have also been shaping up their balance sheets for the review the ECB is making of their assets before it takes over banking supervision.
The pace with which banks are repaying loans they took from the ECB in late 2011 and early 2012 to ride out a period of tight funding has slowed somewhat, as the level of liquidity in the system beyond what banks need for their day-to-day operations dropped to critical levels.
Excess liquidity has fallen close to 100 billion euros from around 800 billion euros at its peak in early 2012 and stood at 132 billion on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the ECB failed to fully sterilise its past bond purchases for the first time since January as banks were less willing to deposit funds at the ECB ahead of the approaching Easter holiday.
Overnight bank-to-bank borrowing costs are expected to move up once excess liquidity drops below a certain level, seen between 80 billion and 100 billion euros.
This development would make it more expensive for banks to get overnight funding and more attractive for them to hold on to the cheap long-term ECB loans.
On Friday, the ECB said four banks would repay 5.782 billion euros from the first LTRO on April 23, and five banks would pay back 1.754 billion from the second LTRO.
(Reporting by Eva Taylor)