The European Central Bank is facing a potential crisis of its own because of "skeleton" risks amounting to several hundreds of billions of euros on its balance sheet, Dow Jones reported quoting Der Spiegel magazine.
The bailed out countries of Greece, Ireland and Portugal but Spain as well have provided as collateral asset-backed securities that are unfit for central bank loans because they have such low or non-existent debt ratings, according to the report.
Providing the collateral allowed the countries to receive more financial support, Dow Jones said the magazine reported in the preview of an article due for publication later Monday.
The ECB had no comment, Dow Jones reported.