However, it is important to recognise that moral hazard also appears within the crisis. This was spread over many months, allowing agents to adapt their short-term behaviour to authorities’ decision whether or not to  BIS Review 13/2010  5  intervene. The policy response had to simultaneously stabilise the short-term situation while accounting for long-term costs.
Today it is generally accepted that the extraordinary policy measures taken were necessary to prevent a collapse of the financial system with even worse economic consequences. Let us hope that the ongoing process of financial reform will enhance the resilience of the financial system, reducing the need for extraordinary interventions in the future and their associated costs. BIS Review 13/2010  6