The authors say that the banks that have been shored up in this way have granted loans to less productive firms, thus adding to an inefficient allocation of credit. But that is not the only respect in which government bond purchases targeted at individual 4/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  countries’ risk premiums raise problems in the euro area.
There is a hidden danger that using the central bank balance sheet to communitise fiscal risks will undermine the principle – enshrined in the Maastricht Treaty – of member states being individually responsible for their own finances. The possibility of passing on government liabilities to the European level reduces incentives for embracing fiscal prudence.