However, while the role of financial conditions in the transmission process has remained as relevant as ever, the task of steering them in line with domestic macroeconomic policy objectives has become more challenging in view of the manifold dislocations in financial markets that have arisen since the crisis and the proximity of standard policy instruments to their lower bound.
We are giving explicit guidance on this because we want to provide as much clarity as possible to banks and facilitate the usability of those buffers. Just to emphasise, again: buffers that have been appropriately built up in recent years are now there to be used to absorb losses and support the economy through this period of uncertainty.