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Banks had 70.9 billion euros in outstanding loans from the European Central Bank (ECB) as of Dec. 28, down from 75.7 billion in November. Emergency loans from the Irish central bank fell a touch to 40.4 billion euros.
Irish banks remain heavily dependent on emergency funding to run their day-to-day operations, but have trimmed that reliance from a high of 187 billion euros in February 2011 by shrinking balance sheets and making a tentative return to capital markets.