ECB's Constancio: Regulatory toolkit should be able to influence demand

ECB #2 on the wires

Constancio is talking about regulation but this is an interesting headline:

• Instruments in the macroprudential toolkit should contain borrower-side tools to influence the demand for credit.

That's a fairly big statement in that side of banking. Regulators usually aim to tighten lending standards and push out borrowers that way but they're saying that authorities should focus on more efforts on tools that would curb loan demand.

Some of that exists in down-payment ratios but that's generally managed at the legislative level, not in central banks or banking regulators.