In the United States, by contrast, firms rely to a much larger extent on market-based sources, which represent 80 % of total external financing. Also, universal banking is the predominant business model in continental European banking compared to the US which – before the outbreak of the crisis – were characterized by specialised investment banks.
In its fight against the crisis the ECB always has taken account of this particular structure of the euro area economy. To be effective, the applied measures of the ECB concentrated on the banking sector and the provision of liquidity.