We now accept a much broader set of assets as collateral, including loans of small size to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) or even self-employed workers, and we accept them at more favourable conditions. This increases the liquidity of the asset side of banks’ balance sheets, and thereby provides further incentives to extend credit to the real economy, even during the current challenging period.
(By the way, I wish that I could also discuss the Federal Reserve's role in promoting the stability of the financial system, another key objective of central banks, but unfortunately that would violate my own personal mandate of finishing this speech in the allotted time.) Now with respect to the first objective, the rationale for maximizing employment is fairly obvious.