In the same way as market participants extensively tested the ability of their information technology systems to withstand the century date change, there is a need for market service providers to carry out some stress testing of the new financial market infrastructure in the euro area as it has developed. The questions to raise in this area are quite well known.
And our purchases of agency debt and MBS seem to have had  2  BIS Review 15/2009  a significant effect on conforming mortgage rates, with rates on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages falling close to a percentage point since the announcement of the program.