Let me first of all be clear about why we implemented the three-year LTROs. As you will remember, the second half of 2011 was marked by an intensification of stress in sovereign debt markets and an environment of high uncertainty. This increasingly hampered the access of euro area banks to market-based funding.
If no action had been taken, this could have resulted in severe strains on bank lending to firms and households and a generalised selling of assets. The LTROs contributed to alleviate these very difficult funding conditions.