Euro area bank lending rates to firms have fallen by some 80 basis points since we started purchasing covered bonds in October 2014, a step which was succeeded shortly afterwards by purchases of asset-backed securities (ABS) and government securities.
ECB analysis attributes a significant portion of this fall to the workings of our asset purchase programme.11 And effective forward guidance on and implementation of the APP may have also helped to 4 / 10  BIS central bankers' speeches  reinforce forward guidance on rates – a channel famously labelled the “signalling” channel.