What did the Governing Council of the ECB do in response to the crisis and why did it do it? Broadly speaking, the Governing Council's responses took place in two stages – the first stage corresponds to the outbreak of the crisis and the second stage to its intensification.
Upon the first signs of financial-market turbulence, in August 2007, the Governing Council moved to ensure the functioning of the money market. The so-called "wholesale" money market plays a key role in the economy because it is the market in which banks borrow and lend to each other.