In a first phase, which lasted from early 2008 to early 2009, the balance sheet was mainly driven by new lending programs designed to support banks that had difficulties accessing refinancing markets.
With the rapid stabilization of US banks, volumes in these operations declined significantly in 2009 and were soon discontinued.1 Policy focused instead now on the market  1  The major exception being the swap agreements with foreign central banks, most notably the ECB, but these operations addressed USD requirements by Non-US banks.