Banks are also passing on the favourable funding conditions to their customers due to our second series of targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTRO-II), which further supports these positive developments.2 For more details, see the box entitled “The targeted longer-term refinancing operations: an overview of the take-up and their impact on bank intermediation”, Economic Bulletin, Issue 3, ECB, 2017.
In this context, it must be emphasized that even if global imbalances and accommodative monetary policy provided an enabling environment for excessive leverage and risk taking, it was still the responsibility of regulators and supervisors to have taken appropriate macro-prudential measures, preemptively and proactively, rather than reactively.