LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Germany’s central bank bought bonds yielding less than the European Central Bank’s deposit rate for the first time on Monday, traders said, a move that follows wide-ranging changes to the ECB’s quantitative easing scheme this month.
Two traders with knowledge of the transactions said the Bundesbank had purchased bonds below the minus 0.40 percent deposit rate in around the five-year maturity.
The yield on Germany’s benchmark five-year bond fell to an 11-day low on Monday of minus 0.51 percent.
The ECB scrapped a rule preventing national central banks from buying bonds below the deposit rate in December, but the legal act allowing this only came into force on Friday.
The Bundesbank and the ECB declined to comment. (Reporting by John Geddie and Dhara Ranasinghe. Edited by Mike Dolan)
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