We study the evolving operating procedures used by the ECB since its creation. During the period up to 2015, bank reserves were scarce and the ECB, like other central banks, used a corridor system in which the money market rate could fluctuate within the bounds set by the lending and the deposit...

Using French firms’ balance sheet data, we show that corporate debt structure plays a significant role in ECB monetary policy transmission. In addition to interest rate policy, we analyse the impact of a novel ECB-induced bond liquidity shock. While both types of policy tightening diminish...