In the euro area, in principle all institutions subject to reserve requirements are eligible to participate in open market operations. 4 The list of eligible collateral was also defined very widely before the outbreak of the crisis already, including, besides government securities, a range of private sector securities and loans. The list was further enlarged in autumn 2008.
As a result, the total value of eligible securities is currently equivalent to about 130% of euro area GDP, giving banks plenty of choice when obtaining funds from the Eurosystem. As will be discussed in section 2.4 below, other central banks had to adapt their frameworks profoundly to achieve the same results as the Eurosystem. 2.2.4.