This pace of credit creation was unprecedented. Our targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO III) have been designed with a view to safeguarding the bank lending channel beyond the lifeline that banks had granted to firms and households in the early days of the crisis.
These operations provide strong financial incentives for banks to maintain their lending to the real economy by offering funding at rates as low as -1% to banks fulfilling their lending thresholds. The attractiveness of these operations was reflected in the large take-up of funds in June and September (see right chart slide 5).