6 It consists of elements that are regularly employed and those that can be activated should the need arise. In particular, this framework comprises three categories of instruments: 1) open market operations, 2) minimum reserve requirements and 3) standing facilities.
7 Even though open market operations include several different operations, the Eurosystem has so far almost exclusively conducted two types: refinancing operations, through which liquidity is temporarily lent to counterparties against eligible collateral and at a minimum bid rate which signals the monetary policy, and the collection of fixed-term deposits ( use of reverse transactions) for fine-tuning purposes, which are used to temporarily absorb (provide) liquidity from (to) counterparties.