Quote Originally Posted by gaelic cowboy View Post
No one lends the ECB any money as it controls the press to print it.
Every currency has to be backed by something, else it is worthless. The ECB may be able to print money, but it still backed by the countries in the EU. This means in essence it is backed by the strong countries such as Germany.

If the ECB books losses then the losses will be passed on to the member countries. The Germans are not happy to pay for Greeks to have a higher quality of life.