However, these proposals and ideas must be sharply distinguished from calls for the central bank to specify preventively how it intends to respond in the event of a crisis besetting the financial system. The ECB is sometimes criticised for having not clarified its role as a lender of last resort in a crisis situation. In that connection, transparency may be positively harmful.
In this context, two concepts are of key significance: “lender of last resort” and “moral hazard”. It is its monopoly position in the creation of central bank money as a definitive payment medium that enables a central bank to cope with a system-imperilling liquidity shortage in the financial sector. If the central bank supplies liquidity for that purpose - i.e.