The lesson from this experience was clear; an effective economic and monetary union needs to include a banking union. Finally, it is important to underline that a common feature of each of the crisis countries prior to the outbreak of the Greek crisis was their large current-account deficits.
The counterparts of these deficits were deficits in the saving-investment behavior of either the public sector or the private sector. The contribution of the ECB to resolving the crisis Exceptional times call for exceptional measures. The ECB responded to the crisis in a bold, broad and, frequently, unconventional manner.