These operations serve to further reduce the funding risk faced by the banking system over a longer time horizon. They were an important tool following the Lehman collapse.
Whilst in late 2009 it had been decided to phase them out, in August of this year the Governing Council decided to re-introduce such operations by conducting one 6-month operation and more recently to allot one operation of approximately 12-months and one of approximately 13-months which will reach the beginning of 2013.