from this symmetry that, since inflation has been below - target in recent years, fulfilment of the aim in the medium term may require it to be above the aim at some time in the future. consequently, the ecb governing council has announced that it stands ready to adjust all of its instruments, as appropriate, to ensure that inflation moves towards its aim in a sustained manner. against this background, we have tasked the relevant eurosystem committees with examining options, including ways to reinforce our forward guidance on policy rates and options for the size and composition of potential new net asset purchases. there is a possibility that durably low or even negative interest rates may have effects on financial stability and bank profitability. it is true that eurosystem estimates suggest that so far the positive effects, in terms of greater economic activity and improved credit quality, offset the adverse effects on banks ’ net income. but it is necessary to monitor this matter continuously in order to determine whether measures are needed to mitigate the adverse effects of low rates on the banking system ’ s intermediation capacity. the governing council has thus also requested that the eurosystem ’ s technical committees analyse a potential tiered system for reserve remuneration. it should be recalled that, in march, new quarterly longer - term financing operations were announced. these will begin to be implemented in september, under very favourable financing conditions, with the aim of maintaining the current low costs of bank funding and, therefore, of overall borrowing by households and firms. it is perhaps worth reiterating here that the ecb ’ s monetary policy has had very positive effects on euro area activity and inflation. in fact, by easing financial conditions and reducing financial market fragmentation, the ecb ’ s expansionary monetary policy has substantially contributed to the improvement in the euro area economy. at the same time, it has prevented the period of negative inflation rates experienced by the european economies further to the crisis - induced recession from turning into a deflationary spiral. specifically, according to some ecb papers8 and to in - house banco de espana estimates, it is believed the set of monetary policy measures adopted since mid - 2014 will have an see m. draghi ( 2019 ), “ twenty years of the ecb ’ s monetary policy ”, ecb forum on central banking, sintra, 18 june 2019. hammermann et al. ( 2019 ), “ taking stock of the eurosystem ’ s asset purchase programme after the end of

various risk premiums rather than in short - term interest rates, which have little room to fall further. therefore, the bank decided to purchase through the program financial assets amounting to about 5 trillion yen – namely, japanese government securities and risk assets such as cp, corporate bonds, exchange - traded funds ( etfs ), and japan real estate investment trusts ( j - reits ) – and provide longer - term funds amounting to 30 trillion yen at a fixed rate of 0. 1 percent through the fixed - rate funds - supplying operation against pooled collateral. the aim of the asset purchases through the program is not to raise the prices of these assets by adjusting the supply and demand balance in the market. rather, the bank ’ s thinking behind the establishment of the program is that the provision of funds through the program will act as a catalyst in prompting a wider range of investors to purchase financial assets, reduce various risk premiums on these assets as a result of increased market transactions, and ultimately bring about positive effects on economic activity. the level of inflation that each policy board member understands, when conducting monetary policy, as being consistent with price stability over the medium to long term. the midpoints of most policy board members ’ “ understanding ” are around 1 percent. bis central bankers ’ speeches the bank has started purchasing assets for which necessary arrangements have been completed : on november 8, it purchased jgbs amounting to about 150 billion yen as its first purchase, and on november 9 it purchased treasury discount bills amounting to about 150 billion yen as its second purchase. bis central bankers ’ speeches