On 14 August, the first Tuesday following the start of the tensions in the money market, the ECB resorted to its standard instrument for market operations, namely its one-week main refinancing operation which is usually allotted on Tuesdays. With a view to ensuring orderly conditions in the money markets, the ECB allotted significantly larger amounts of liquidity than it would have under normal circumstances.
The same approach was adopted in the subsequent one-week main refinancing operations on 21 and 28 August and 4 September. Thanks to this relatively generous allotment, money market rates with maturities up to one week were brought back to usual levels. However, tensions remained in money market rates for maturities above one week.