ABS as collateral for ECB loans to banks and the importance of a functioning securitisation market

The size and structure of monetary policy operations of all major central banks have changed substantially in the last five years as a result of the efforts to implement appropriate responses to the on-going financial crisis. The changes varied in type and included, among others, the introduction of programmes of asset purchases and asset swaps, non-recourse forms of collateralised lending, lending in foreign currencies as well as an extension of the eligibility criteria of acceptable …