BIS central bankers’ speeches  3  We welcome the on-going work by the Commission and the EIB on joint risk-sharing instruments to support SME lending, which would combine the EU budget resources with the EIB and the EIF lending capacity4. The European Council has supported this initiative and called for these instruments to begin operating in January 2014.
In parallel, a more balanced regulatory treatment for ABS, acknowledging the past credit performance of these instruments, would ensure a level playing field with other securities regarding risk, rating and maturity. The ECB can support the revival of the ABS market, provided that the risk to the Eurosystem is controllable, and the underlying instruments are simple and transparent.