The ECB has already been accepting corporate loans as part of collateral in its regular liquidity operations. By operating through the banking sector, this has significantly contributed to providing funding to non-financial corporations – and thereby an easing of credit conditions. Buying corporate debt outright would circumvent the banking sector. We have a responsibility to keep the Eurosystem financially sound.
This concern puts a break on how much further we can expand our balance sheet. How to solve the crisis? Clearly, the challenges for resolving the current crisis remain tremendous. There is no panacea. We have made our contribution by making sure that longer-term inflation expectations have remained anchored in line with price stability and by preventing a liquidity crunch.