In that sense, some central banks have decided to bypass the banking system and start lending to households and firms directly for the sake of preserving the orderly functioning of the economy. In practice, even abstracting from possible legal constraints (e.g.
prohibition of monetary financing to the state in the European Monetary Union), there are several issues that central banks must consider before deciding on the appropriateness for their “own” economies of providing direct financing to the real sector. I stress the term “own” because this is one of those cases in which there is no unique answer.