As a result, households and firms, as well as financial institutions, particularly in advanced economies, came to face the problem of balance-sheet adjustments: households and firms had to repay their excessive debt by curtailing their consumption and investment, while financial institutions had to dispose of their impaired loans and reduce their excessive leverage.
The ECB also has the advantage of having a very clear, transparent and measurable goal of price stability. This objective has never been compromised and it will not be compromised in the future. Internal procedures can be, and will be, designed in a way that the separation between monetary policy and banking supervision is efficiently implemented.