Although new regulations on systemically important financial institutions have recently been approved, the “too-big-to-fail” issue is still a major concern. It would be foolish to pretend that defaults can be avoided, so we need to be prepared for their occurrence. The ongoing work on resolution regimes is a promising approach in this regard. Rules alone are not enough, however.
We do not buy government bonds in the primary market, which is explicitly forbidden under Article 123. And neither do we act in the secondary market in a way which could be perceived as equivalent to acting in the primary market. The Eurosystem has put in place a blackout period, and so does not buy in periods around the date of a new issuance.