This wide list of eligible assets – together with the sizeable number of counterparties and the large size of its refinancing operations – has helped the Eurosystem to implement its liquidity management policies during the recent period of decline in market and banking liquidity.
But can we at least explain why we did not see them ex ante? There are several reasons. But let me point to two main ones. The first is that, to some extent, some of these factors were impossible to see.