First, a large set of counterparties has access to the Eurosystem’s refinancing operations. Second, a wide range of high-quality collateral is eligible for Eurosystem operations. Third, the operations are of sufficient size to effectively facilitate the redistribution of liquidity among banks. The Eurosystem’s operational framework has proved sufficiently flexible and effective in dealing with the money market tensions caused by the financial market turmoil.
The ECB has adjusted the distribution of liquidity over the reserve maintenance period, without, however, modifying the total average supply of bank reserves over the whole maintenance period. The ECB has also conducted fine-tuning operations more frequently and lengthened the average maturity of its open market operations.