In addition, given that the malfunctioning of financial systems exerted significant adverse effects on economic activity, a number of central banks adopted unconventional monetary policy measures as seen in the launch of massive purchases of government bonds by the Fed and the BOE. Against this background, the Bank started Comprehensive Monetary Easing (CME) in October 2010.
As the name suggests, the Bank purchased a comprehensive range of assets – not only government bonds but also credit products such as CP and corporate bonds, equity financial products such as Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and Japan Real Estate Investment Trusts (J-REITs) – with the aim of directly lowering part of the yield curve up to three years and at compressing various risk premiums.