Euro area investment funds, insurers and pension funds jointly hold half of these bonds, as opposed to 7% held by euro area banks. The greater role of non-banks can be positive from a financial stability perspective as it helps diversify the sources of financing provided to the real economy.
One of the most important aspects of this is the accessibility of the private sector – particularly the business sector, including medium sized and small businesses – to sources of credit, to enable it to continue producing and developing. At this time, in the shadow of the crisis, accessibility to nonbank credit and to credit from abroad is very restricted.