The concrete content became public at the beginning of August, when the ECB Governing Council announced a new programme concerning the creation of a programme of government bond purchases. The details of the programme were communicated during autumn.
Called “Outright Monetary Transactions” (OMTs), the programme was designed to eliminate such risk premia from the markets as were based on speculations about a country’s exit from the euro area. No ex ante limits were set on the size of OMTs, but certain conditions were attached to the programme to ensure its effectiveness and safeguard the ECB’s monetary policy.