LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Lloyds Banking Group (LSE: LLOY.L - news) said it will next week repay the remaining 3.5 billion euros (2.9 billion pounds) it took under the European Central Bank's long-term funding plan.
Lloyds took 13.5 billion euros of cash from the ECB's 3-year long-term refinancing operations (LTRO). It repaid 10 billion euros in February and said on Friday it will repay the remainder by May 15, following this month's sale of its Spanish retail business.
The ECB lent more than 1 trillion euros to banks in two tranches in late 2011 and early 2012 to help avert a credit crunch, and Europe's banks have repaid just over 270 billion euros this year as their liquidity has improved.
(Reporting by Steve Slater; Editing by Matt Scuffham)
