ECB accepts junk bonds as collateral to help virus-hit banks

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank said on Wednesday it would let banks post collateral that was downgraded to junk during the coronavirus outbreak to prevent a credit squeeze in the euro zone. With the euro zone economy reeling, Italy and a whole range of companies face the risk of losing their investment grade credit rating.This would have meant banks could not use those assets to finance themselves at the ECB, also raising borrowing costs for those issuers.But the ECB said it..