ECB President Mario Draghi said this week the central bank was aware of the difficulties that European banks faced due to tight funding markets and the scarcity of eligible collateral. In a commentary published in Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Saturday, Intesa's Andrea Beltratti said banks could continue to lend to companies only if they were able to secure medium and long-term funding. The sovereign debt crisis in Europe has locked the region's lenders out of wholesale funding markets. "It is therefore desirable that the ECB should significantly lengthen the maturity of loans to European banks and widen the criteria to accept assets as guarantee," Beltratti wrote. The chief executive of rival lender UniCredit also highlighted worries about funding when he met ECB officials last month, calling for Italian banks to be given wider access to ECB borrowing. Economists say the next steps from the ECB at its Dec. 8 policy meeting could include an offer to lend banks as much cash as they want for two or three years because market financing beyond two years is prohibitively expensive; and a relaxation of the rules governing the collateral.