The prices of government bonds affect the pricing of other securities, such as bank or corporate bonds – key variables in the functioning of monetary policy. Disruptions on the  BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  government bond market therefore also have an impact on the effectiveness of our monetary policy.
In summer 2012, our monetary policy signals were reaching some euro area countries in only a limited way. Sometimes they did not even reach the real economy. Our key interest rate had lost its guiding role. It was in these circumstances that we announced the OMTs as an option on 6 September 2012.