With this in mind, the Federal Reserve over the past two years has taken strong action in response to the financial crisis to help improve financial market conditions and promote the flow of credit to households and businesses.
We have acted on multiple fronts by instituting accommodative monetary policy, expanding existing liquidity programs for depository institutions, and establishing new liquidity facilities to support market functioning. Throughout this period, we have particularly emphasized ensuring that our supervision and examination policies do not inadvertently impede sound lending to businesses, both large and small, and we will continue to do so.