News Summary: ECB details $292B holdings
ECB details $292B holdings under discontinued bond-buying program, nearly half from Italy
BOND ISSUES: The European Central Bank says Italian government bonds account for nearly half of its total holdings under a now discontinued bond-buying program launched in 2010 to ease the eurozone's debt crisis.
FIRST LOOK: The ECB detailed for the first time what countries' bonds it acquired under the so-called Securities Markets Program, which it started when the euro area's debt crisis flared in May 2010.
TROUBLED ECONOMIES: Not surprisingly, bonds worth a face value of €218 billion ($292 billion) came from the most economically unstable European countries: €102.8 billion from Italy. €44.3 billion from Spain; €33.9 billion from Greece; €22.8 billion from Portugal; and €14.2 billion in Irish bonds.
