Since the beginning of the subprime crisis, central banks have been  BIS Review 149/2008  3  providing commercial banks with comprehensive liquidity measures. After the Lehman collapse and the subsequent drying-up of wholesale funding markets, these operations have been further intensified. The Eurosystem has repeatedly declared its intention to continue its generous supply of liquidity as long as necessary.
However, underlying solvency problems – while not always clearly separable from liquidity problems – cannot be solved by central banks or banking supervisors It is a core government task, and the German Financial Market Stabilisation Fund is designed to do just that. Finally, monetary policy has to keep the balance between price stability and financial stability.