Within banks’ credit portfolios, there has been a shift towards relatively weaker firms in terms of their financial soundness indicators. [6] In a recent speech, the Chair of the Supervisory Board of the ECB (European Central Bank), Andrea Enria therefore stressed that banks should not project the currently low levels of defaults into the future (Enria 2022).
There has even been some public discussion on whether the ECB has over-stretched its mandate. In particular, some question the legitimacy of public asset purchases as a monetary policy tool.