We can also examine the importance of various forms of wealth (housing or various financial instruments) and how closely households’ assets and liabilities are aligned. The Eurosystem has long understood the necessity of this kind of information and has organized the Household Finance and Consumption Survey that is conducted every 2 to 3 years.
When the forex markets dried up and German banks got cut off from US dollar funding, the central banks had to step in and lend a helping hand. Since then, the ECB, to name but one, has been providing swap facilities, but the take-up now is virtually non-existent.