The money was lent at 1% over three years. This was the biggest infusion of hyperinflationary credit by the ECB ever, and represents 5% of the GDP of the whole European Union. In one day.
The move was part of the ECB's package of measures intended to "stabilise" financial markets. The Association of German Banks said at the time that the cash injection would "decisively improve" the liquidity of European Banks, and help ward off potential credit shortages in the Euro zone.
So, has it achieved its objective?
The answer is, of course, no. Just as Quantitative Easing failed, so has this, for instead of using this new money, banks are hoarding it.
To give an idea of the scale of this, before the financial crisis, the ECB typically had less than €100 million on deposit from European banks, this week there is approaching €0.5 trillion, and the expectation is that this will rise above the half trillion mark within days.
It should be noted this situation is almost identical to the events of 2009 in the USA, with the FED dumping new money on the banks, and the banks hoarding it in reserve accounts at the FED.
The result? An explosion in US unemployment.