Bundesbank may Lift Veto on ecu use - Sources

The Bundesbank could announce today that it will lift its veto on the private holding of European Currency Unit (ECU) liabilities, banking sources said.

But this would probably be the only significant news from today’s council session, brought forward from its usual Thursday date because of the Corpus Christi holiday here. The Bundesbank is not expected to change credit policy.

The sources said Bundesbank officials had been working out technical and legal problems with the ECU since the subject was discussed in the presence of federal finance minister Gerhard Stoltenberg on May 7.

With the primary internal work on the ECU completed, approval from the 18-member central bank council was now virtually a mere formality, the sources said.

Bundesbank president Karl Otto Poehl, chairing today’s meeting, said in mid-May the remaining ECU restrictions were likely to be lifted, allowing individuals to open ECU accounts and incur liabilities previously mainly executed through the Luxembourg subsidiaries of the major German banks.

The sources said the ECU liberalisation was mainly designed to show that West Germany was prepared to play its part in the effort to attain European Community monetary unity by 1992.