More ECB policymakers join 'wait and see' camp

PORTOROZ, Slovenia (Reuters) - Several European Central Bank policymaker urged patience with its monetary policy on Friday, supporting expectations that the bank will adapt a wait-and-see stance at its next meeting on June 2.

The ECB unveiled a major stimulus package in March but several key components, like corporate debt purchases and new ultra-cheap loans to the bank sector, have yet to be implemented.

ECB President Mario Draghi called for patience last month, tempering market expectations - fueled in part by euro zone inflation that remains entrenched at or below zero - that more steps may be coming.

Several Governing Council members have since come out publicly in support of such a stance.

"The monetary policy stance should remain broadly accommodative at this point ... (and we need) to maintain a degree of patience," Estonian central bank chief Ardo Hansson told a conference on Friday.

"A lot of accommodation that has been decided already is still in the pipeline and it will work its way through," Hansson said.

Fighting ultra-low inflation, the ECB cut its deposit rate deeper into negative territory in March, expanded its asset buying scheme to 1.7 trillion euros ($1.91 trillion) and offered loans to banks at a zero or possibly even negative rates.

Its corporate debt purchases will start in June while a new targeted longer-term refinancing operation involving loans to banks will kick off in late June.

Slovak central bank chief Jozef Makuch also said that no further measures were needed now, adding that if future steps become necessary, the ECB needed to be careful about rate cuts.

"Interest rates can still be lower still and we are now testing how low they can go," Makuch said. "But if this tool must continue to be used, then I must urge caution so (we do not) bring about a totally counterproductive threat to financial stability."

"The scope for deploying standard instruments is almost exhausted," he said, adding that unconventional tools had become commonplace.

Speaking to a Japanese newspaper on Friday, ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said cutting rates further was possible, in principle, but there was no plan for such a move.

($1 = 0.8917 euros)

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Alison Williams and John Stonestreet)

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