But we recognise that, if too prolonged, periods of low or negative inflation could unleash forces that may affect the outlook, by destabilising inflation expectations and aggravating the burden of the debt overhang of both governments and households. Given these concerns, the ECB Governing Council has reaffirmed forward guidance and stressed its readiness to act with other measures if required. Conclusions Let me conclude.
Here, banks and financial institutions are in a completely different category. What happens in a particular bank is a concern of all. Fear of contagion and systemic implications. Think of some recent bad cases involving banks, including co-operative banks. Relatively small, but affected a lot of institutions, including some several times larger.