Part I Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis and Maintenance of Financial Stability, 3 The Response of Central Banks to the COVID-19 Crisis: Legal Aspects of the ECB’s Monetary Policy Measures »
Chiara Zilioli, Antonio Luca Riso
From: International Monetary and Banking Law post COVID-19
Edited By: William Blair, Christos Gortsos, Chiara Zilioli
This chapter focuses on the legal aspects of the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policy measures, following the response of central banks to the COVID-19 crisis. The starting point of the analysis are some considerations on the time dimension and the territorial dimension of monetary sovereignty, as well as on the interaction between monetary and supervisory competences. The experience of the COVID crisis was both a useful illustration of how central banks have an essential role to “buy time” for other branches of government to intervene in case of crisis, and also of the importance of cooperation among central banks to effectively handle global challenges on a global scale. The COVID crisis was also an opportunity to review and expand the monetary policy toolkit, and to showcase the advantages and benefits of having a central bank in charge of both monetary policy and banking supervision. It ends with a reflection on the future outlook for the ECB against the background of its strategic review, and the possible involvement of central banks in the fight to climate change.
