By Francesco Canepa
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Euro zone banks are making the same margin on loans as they were before the financial crisis, ECB data showed on Wednesday, running counter to complaints that ultra-low interest rates are damaging their business.
The data, closely watched by the European Central Bank itself, is likely to provide comfort to policymakers who are widely expected to cut the bank's rate on deposits for a second time in four months on March 10 as they pursue efforts to revive falling euro zone inflation.
It also adds weight to comments by ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure - a close ally of bank president Mario Draghi - who said on Wednesday that banks had dealt well with rock-bottom rates and their biggest problems were not caused by loose monetary policy.
Reuters calculations based on the data showed the unweighted average interest rate lenders charge on loans to households and companies has almost halved since the crisis erupted in 2008.
The rate banks pay on deposits has fallen even faster, however, leaving the difference between both -- a gauge of a bank's margin -- at around 240 basis points, right where it was in 2005 and 2009.
The measure hit a high of 285 basis points in 2003 and a low of 184 in 2012.
In January, the average rate on outstanding loans was 3.6 percent and on remunerated deposits 1.2 percent, leaving scope for policy rates to be cut further before depositors' returns are wiped out.
That is seen by some as the lower limit because it would likely trigger a political backlash in cash-rich countries such as Germany.
The head of Germany's Bundesbank said last week bank profits would shrink if rates stayed at rock bottom for too long, and Dutch retail bank ABN Amro (AS:ABNd) said in mid-February that low rates and falling commodity prices could hit its performance.
JPMorgan (NYSE:JPM) demurred. "The impression that you get from the ECB data is that there is room for the policy rate to go down further before you have a serious effect on net interest income," David Mackie, an economist at the U.S. bank, said on Wednesday.
Banks could in the past use free cash from unremunerated deposits to generate a return simply by parking it at the ECB or buying government bonds, but the central bank's deposit rate is at -0.30 percent and returns on many euro zone bonds are near zero.
This means banks are having to chase riskier, higher-yielding assets or increase lending volumes, which is one of the goals of ECB's policy.
But the lower yields have also allowed banks in countries hit by the debt crisis, such as Italy and Portugal, to finance themselves more cheaply.
The ECB has acknowledged banks' concerns but, so far, is standing its ground.
Its top bank supervisors, Sabine Lautenschlaeger and Daniele Nouy, have insisted banks should focus on fee-based business and on cutting costs.
"In this environment, money is a cheap commodity," Marco Troiano, a director at Scope Ratings, said. "If banks' business model was simply to get money for free from captive customers and lend it out, then they definitely have a challenge."