As well as cutting interest rates to a record low, the Eurosystem has also adopted some unconventional measures, the most significant being a virtually unrestricted allotment of central bank liquidity, extending the maturities on central bank refinancing operations to three years, broadening the Eurosystem’s collateral framework and introducing outright transactions, which include sovereign bond purchases.
In the course of the crisis, central banks were entrusted with ever more responsibility – both officially and unofficially. ESCB central banks play a central role in macroprudential supervision, ie as part of the European Systemic Risk Board, and the Bundesbank forms an integral part of the German Financial Stability Committee (Ausschuss für Finanzstabilität).