The ECB said that 800 banks lined up to borrow a record 529.5 billion euros ($712 billion) at exceptionally low interest rates in its second three-year long-term refinancing operation, or LTRO.
That beats the 489.19 billion euros borrowed by 523 banks in a first such operation in December, but analysts were cautious about the effects and outlook.
The ECB launched the ultra-long loans late last year with the aim of averting a credit squeeze in the 17 countries which share the euro.
The bank hoped the money would be lent to households and businesses and also be used to bring down government borrowing costs.
Analysts believe the first operation in December has indeed succeeded in easing funding problems for European banks, which have to deal with 720 billion euros due to mature in 2012.
Furthermore, banks also appear to have used some of the cheap funds to buy sovereign debt of countries such as Italy and Spain.
"This helped to bring down their bond yields substantially and the ECB will undoubtedly be hoping to see a similar impact from the second operation," said IHS Global Insight economist Howard Archer.
But economists suggest the new-found confidence is fragile, and aversin to risk on the interbank market remains high.
Austrian central bank chief Nowotny was more hopeful. "There is a more optimistic perspective... some talk about green shoots," he said.
The ECB itself has recently halted its own programme of buying sovereign bonds.
Analysts are sceptical the ECB will want to undertake a third LTRO amid concern within its governing council about the potential longer-term inflationary impact of so much cheap funding being made available.
"There won't automatically be a third round," said the central bank's Austrian official Ewald Nowotny in an interview in The Times.
Capital Economics economist Jennifer McKeown said the second LTRO would provide further vital support for the eurozone's beleaguered banking sector.
"But hopes that the funds will also solve the fiscal crisis and breathe life into the ailing eurozone economy are likely to be disappointed," she cautioned.
Admittedly, Italian and Spanish banks increased their purchases of sovereign debt in January, no doubt contributing to the fall in government bond yields in those countries, she noted.
But overall eurozone bank purchases of government securities rose by less in January than in November and December, before the first LTRO.
"And even if banks have more money to invest after today's operation, we are not convinced that they will stash it in risky government bonds," the analyst said.
"In all, the ECB's LTROs are clearly having some positive effect on the region's banks and hence on the outlook for the public finances. But we doubt that they will alter the underlying outlook for the wider economy or bring an end to the peripheral debt crisis," McKeown concluded.
The head of the German banking federation BdB, Michael Kemmer, warned that the ECB liquidity was no panacea to the eurozone's ills.
"The measures are buying time. But they can't replace a functioning interbank market or solve the sovereign debt crisis," he cautioned.
Some analysts were concerned that the high amount of take-up of the loans might in fact be a sign that banks are worried about funding concerns further down the line.
RBS economist Nick Matthews said that "whilst the liquidity provision helps
keep tail risks for European banks at bay in the near term, as we have reiterated many times in the past, LTROs do not address the underlying solvency issues and ultimately funding stresses can quickly return."
Luca Cazzulani at UniCredit Research suggested the higher number of banks taking advantage of the cheap loans was "most likely due to a higher participation from small and medium sized banks as a result of the new collateral rules adopted by countries" such as Ireland, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Austria and Portugal.
"With so many banks participating in the operation, liquidity should now be very well distributed in the system," Cazzulani said.
European stock markets did in fact rise on the ECB news, lifted by gains among banking shares.
And the euro edged higher, too, to $1.3471 compared with a level of $1.3466 late in New York on Tuesday.