The European sovereign debt crisis was characterised by the fact that some euro area countries, owing to their high levels of debt – caused in part by efforts to counter the consequences of the global financial crisis – experienced difficulties refinancing their debt and, in some cases, lost access to capital market funding. In order to protect monetary policy transmission and safeguard sufficient liquidity provision for the financial system, the ECB Governing Council adopted various non-standard measures during the course of the crisis that went beyond the scope of the usual operational framework at that time.

The Eurosystem’s monetary policy measures in the years following the European sovereign debt crisis were shaped, in particular, by a prolonged period in which inflation rates were well below the Eurosystem’s target. Against this backdrop, the ECB Governing Council decided, starting in 2014, to conduct various targeted longer-term refinancing operations (TLTROs) and launch temporary monetary policy purchase programmes in addition to the existing operational framework.

Prior to the global financial crisis starting in 2007, the Eurosystem’s operational framework for implementing monetary policy used to be a corridor system. This involved the ECB Governing Council setting three interest rates, which usually had the same distance from each other. The rates of the deposit facility and the marginal lending facility formed the lower and upper bounds of the corridor, respectively. The relevant key interest rate on the main refinancing operations was the middle of the interest rate corridor. This system aimed to steer short-term money market rates close to the main refinancing operations rate.

The Eurosystem’s monetary policy from 2020 was shaped by the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge in inflation from 2021. This ultimately led to a series of Eurosystem policy rate hikes totalling 450 basis points (from July 2022 to September 2023).

The Eurosystem’s operational framework for implementing monetary policy comprises the general rules for Eurosystem monetary policy instruments and procedures, by means of which the ECB Governing Council’s decisions on the implementation of monetary policy in the euro area are enacted in a decentralised manner. The Eurosystem’s monetary policy operations are executed under uniform terms and conditions in all Member States. The Bundesbank is responsible for conducting the Eurosystem’s monetary policy operations with German counterparties.

The statistics on the money markets is on money market transactions, namely on secured, unsecured and certain derivatives money market transactions, concluded by monetary financial institutions (MFIs), with the exception of money market funds.

The purpose of CERT-Bundesbank is to promptly detect anomalies as well as attacks from internal and external sources.

The MaSanV details the requirements for the design of recovery plans, the content of simplified requirements for recovery plans, and the application process, conditions and the design of recovery plans by institutional protection schemes.

Bank profit and loss statistics provide data on the income and expenditure of MFIs on an annual basis. This involves the evaluation of the profits and losses calculated from the annual accounts which the banks must submit to the Bundesbank pursuant to section 26 of the Banking Act (Kreditwesengesetz).

Here you will find all publications on the subject of "External debt".