BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  First, we provided term-funding support to euro area banks through long-term refinancing operations. This measure avoided a major credit crunch when interbank lending dried up. Second, we removed unwarranted and self-reinforcing fears of euro breakup by announcing Outright Monetary Transactions.
Given the challenges facing the sector, supervisors are interested in examining exactly what burdens for the institutions are truly justified in order to avoid placing any further, unnecessary obstacles in their way. And third, I would like to stress that we must not concentrate solely on the interest rate level. We face a number of quite different challenges, too.