And in particular by market-based finance. For the avoidance of doubt, market-based finance is the raising of equity or debt through the financial markets rather than through the banking system. The growth in market-based finance is a positive development. It provides a useful alternative to bank financing and can facilitate risk-sharing across the financial system. However, it is important that capital markets are resilient.
However, considerable imbalances have  2  BIS central bankers’ speeches  accumulated in the last decade in several euro area countries and they are now in the process of being corrected. As concerns the monetary policy stance of the ECB, it has to be focused on the euro area. Our primary objective remains to maintain price stability over the medium term.