But this requires constant adaptation to market behaviors, and could over time be even  more complicated with the advent of digital currencies. The use of indirect instruments has considerable merit by allowing market forces to operate; in this way a small change in interest rates for example could ripple through the financial system, with institutions reacting based on their particular circumstances and needs.
In contrast, the blunt direct tools would largely be unable to discriminate among financial institutions, notwithstanding their differing situations. Indirect paths however do require a deep understanding of how the Central Bank’s tools would work their way through the financial system—in economic parlance, the ‘transmission mechanism’ of monetary policy.