Deposit Flight at European Banks Means Risk Piling Up at ECB

``By accepting those countries' bonds as collateral in exchange for funds, the ECB is piling up risk, said Desmond Lachman, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. In the event of a default, the ECB's losses would be borne by the EU's member states. Lending to the region's banks by the ECB and other central banks is about seven times the capital of the Eurosystem, the consolidated balance sheet of all euro zone central banks. ''