Draghi spreekt momenteel over de stand van zaken i.v.m. de Europese schuldencrisis en de taak van de ECB. In eerste opzicht reageerde de markt opgewekt. Door de renteverlaging van 25 basispunten tot 1 procent hadden beleggers begrepen dat de ECB de grotere middelen zou inzetten om de crisis te bestrijden. Maar Draghi maakte al snel brandhout van deze illusies. De ECB legt met andere woorden de bal in het kamp van de Europese leiders. Ondertussen zijn de markten 180° gedraaid en is de euro in vrije val geraakt… Het volledige persbericht van de ECB:

PRESS RELEASE 8 December 2011 – ECB announces measures to support bank lending and money market activity The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has today decided on additional enhanced credit support measures to support bank lending and liquidity in the euro area money market. In particular, the Governing Council has decided:

• To conduct two longer-term refinancing operations (LTROs) with a maturity of 36 months and the option of early repayment after one year.
• To discontinue for the time being, as of the maintenance period starting on 14 December 2011, the fine-tuning operations carried out on the last day of each maintenance period.
• To reduce the reserve ratio, which is currently 2%, to 1% as of the reserve maintenance period starting on 18 January 2012. As a consequence of the full allotment policy applied in the ECB’s main refinancing operations and the way banks are using this option, the system of reserve requirements is not needed to the same extent as under normal circumstances to steer money market conditions.
• To increase collateral availability by (i) reducing the rating threshold for certain asset-backed securities (ABS) and (ii) allowing national central banks (NCBs), as a temporary solution, to accept as collateral additional performing credit claims (i.e. bank loans) that satisfy specific eligibility criteria. These two measures will take effect as soon as the relevant legal acts have been published.