Some of the banks in Europe that received billions in cheap loans to keep them afloat during the eurozone debt crisis are to repay them early.
The European Central Bank (ECB) said that 278 eurozone banks will repay 137.16bn euros ($185bn; £117bn) of three-year loans they borrowed.
The money, lent in December 2011 and February 2012, will be paid on 30 January, it added.
The loans were made when many feared that the eurozone would break apart.
It lent the money amidst fears that Greece, which needed two international bailouts, could default on its huge debts. At the same time, many investors thought the huge economies of Spain and Italy may be next to require international assistance.
On Friday, the head of the European Central Bank said that the 17-nation currency, which dates back to 1999, had effectively been relaunched during the past year.
“If one has to find a common denominator… for defining why 2012 is going to be remembered, I think one would say it’s the year of the relaunching of the euro,” Mario Draghi said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“All the indices point to a substantial improvement of financial conditions.”
The ECB has forecast that eurozone economic growth in 2013 will be between minus 0.9% and plus 0.4%.
Mr Draghi said: “Are we satisfied? I think to say the least, the jury is still out. Because all in all, we haven’t seen an equal momentum on the real side of the economy and that’s where we will have to do much more.”
