Asset liquidation can impose externalities on other players in the financial system through, for example, fire sales and financial contagion. 16 From the monetary policy perspective, money markets play a central role in monetary policy transmission in the euro area.
While the availability and volume of SME finance have improved over the last five years, the cost of bank lending for smaller firms in Ireland remains high relative to peers elsewhere in the euro area, both in absolute terms and relative to the cost of borrowing of local larger companies .