FRANKFURT, March 20: The European Central Bank (ECB) allotted 15 billion euros ($23 billion) on Thursday in a quick refinancing operation aimed at offsetting a projected liquidity shortage in the money market.

Central banks often ensure the banking sector is well supplied with cash ahead of long holiday weekends, in this case Easter Sunday.

The ECB received bids totalling 65.81 billion euros for funds that were offered for five days, it said in a statement.

The offer was a so-called fine-tuning operation, a process by which the bank controls the amount of cash available to markets on which commercial banks lend to each other.

Later in the day, the ECB launched a supplemental one-month refinancing operation worth $15 billion, part of a combined effort with the US Federal Reserve to provide European banks with dollars.

—AFP