This should never be seen as an automatic facility available to all banks in distress, but should be used only when the failure of a bank would pose a serious threat to the financial system as a whole.
The primary aim of the “lender of last resort” facility is therefore not to save the bank in distress, but rather to consider the effect that the failure might have on the system and what should be done to protect the system from contagion. A banking group, including the bank or banks in such a group, could also be contaminated by nonbanking activity.