A deputy director at the European Central Bank has said he’d “never say never” to opening up liquidity support to non-banks such as life insurers and pension funds following recent moves by the Bank of England (BoE).

“Never say never: we are attentive to that, but I would not see that as imminent,” said Thomas Vlassopoulos, deputy director general for market operations at the ECB, in response to a question about whether the central bank was considering allowing life insurers access to liquidity