ECB needs to take its time to prepare new bank loans - Nowotny

PRAGUE (Reuters) - The European Central Bank will launch its new round of cheap bank funding later than expected because of the time needed to prepare the facility, Austrian central bank chief Ewald Nowotny said on Friday.

The first of the ECB's new quarterly targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO) will be held in September, three months later than markets had expected.

"To make this a successful programme, it has to be well-prepared," Nowotny told reporters. "And also one must not forget we now have TLTRO II (in place)... so I think the time is the correct one."

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet; Writing by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Peter Graff)