At the ECB press conference following its October meting on Thursday, Mario Draghi will likely remove concerns over the potential balance sheet increase by arguing that TLTROs should be assessed together with the purchases of private assets, that these measures will help achieve the ECB’s mandate, and if not, that the central bank stands ready to act further, says Bank of America Merrill Lynch. In term of size, BofA expects the ECB to go for “constructive ambiguity”. "This would have several purposes. First, the ABS program is probably not mature enough to estimate its size. Second, as Draghi argued last month, ... (full story)