With financial market conditions having improved in the course of 2009 and early 2010, the Governing Council gradually scaled back some of the non-standard measures while continuing to provide liquidity support to the banking system at very favourable conditions with a view to facilitate the provision of credit. 4.
Another episode of the crisis started to unfold in May 2010 when market concerns about the sustainability of public finances in some euro area countries grew in view of rapidly rising government debt-to-GDP ratios and increasing contingent liabilities. Bond markets in these euro area countries became severely dysfunctional.