Bank of Ireland, Allied Irish Banks, EBS building society and Irish Life & Permanent have issued bonds totalling €12.3 billion to themselves to repay similar "own-use" debt issued in January, writes Simon Carswell.

The European Central Bank has allowed the banks to issue “own-use” bonds and for these, if government-guaranteed, to be used as collateral to draw loans from Frankfurt as the debt markets are closed to the Irish institutions.

On Tuesday Bank of Ireland issued a €2 billion bond falling due in July and AIB issued a bond of €2.87 billion maturing in August. Yesterday Bank of Ireland issued a bond worth €2.2 billion, Irish Life and Permanent raised €3.44 billion on another own-use bond and EBS issued a bond of €1.82 billion. All are due in August.