The ECB also took unconventional measures to prevent the sovereign debt crisis from severely dragging down the real economy and from frustrating monetary transmission and its efforts to maintain price stability. We first introduced the Securities Markets Programme, or SMP, for interventions in the secondary government bond markets of vulnerable countries in order to restore their proper functioning.
Therefore, there was a widespread belief that the situation would turn around if business could be sustained until land prices started to rise again. When bank capital was eroded to a critical threshold, however, an acute credit crunch erupted.