[17]  4  BIS central bankers’ speeches  Monetary policy continued to help the situation when, at the end of 2011, the ECB introduced two three-year longer-term refinancing operations implemented in December 2011 and February 2012 amounting to EUR 1 trillion. This measure and the correction of the two rate hikes contributed to attenuate the severity of the 2012 recession.
Ladies and Gentlemen: the lack of credit information sharing has in the past been a contributory factor to the high levels of non performing loans in the sector. Furthermore, banks have tended to rely more on physical rather than on “personal” collateral in their lending decisions.