The Eurosystem’s swap and repo agreements help the ECB prevent forced asset sales by the receiving central banks, containing the risk of financial instability in the euro area and the neighbouring regions. In other words, these are arrangements of mutual benefit.
On 1 January 1999 Stage Three of Economic and Monetary Union began with the irrevocable fixing of the exchange rates of the currencies of the 11 Member States initially forming the euro area. The number of countries participating in Economic and Monetary Union has grown over the years.