2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  policy, the introduction of additional and new long-term refinancing operations and the extension of the list of collateral eligible for monetary policy operations. By allowing banks to continue rolling-over their short and medium-term financing, the liquidity provision of the ECB avoided a fire-sale of assets.
Like various other central banks, the Eurosystem has also embarked on outright purchases of securities, though on a relatively limited scale, in order to support the broader functioning of euro area financial markets. The Covered Bond Purchase Programme was initiated in July 2009.