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.

On 13 March 2024, the ECB Governing Council decided on changes to the operational framework for implementing monetary policy. These changes will affect how central bank liquidity will be provided as excess liquidity in the banking system, while remaining significant over the coming years, gradually declines.

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 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.

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.

With the outbreak of the global financial crisis in 2007 and the turmoil it brought about in the international banking system, trust between commercial banks increasingly dwindled, which significantly hampered the redistribution of liquidity via the interbank market that is necessary for a functioning corridor system. Banks in the euro area began to hoard liquidity or not lend it indiscriminately to banks that were in need of liquidity, meaning that the short-term money market no longer facilitated the smooth distribution of liquidity. The volatility of short-term interest rates went up significantly. As a result, the ECB Governing Council adopted a series of non-standard monetary policy measures, thereby changing the way in which the operational framework is used to implement monetary policy.

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.