In part reflecting these circumstances, the ECB’s approach during the crisis has also been different to that of other major central banks. The ECB’s main focus has been on collateralised lending, whereas the focus of other major central banks has been on largescale asset purchases.
This has had, in turn, implications for the pace and size of deleveraging in the euro area economy.5 In this respect, the ECB’s approach can be seen as more indirect than the approach based on large-scale asset purchases.