the root causes of the crisis and to build a genuine economic and monetary union have been set in motion. the ecb ’ s monetary policy will continue to make its contribution to this endeavour, in line with its mandate. the heavy task of implementing the important decisions already taken lies ahead. all parties involved in this comprehensive reform agenda must persevere. and we must all work with conviction and determination towards our shared vision. if we do so, i am confident that restoring stability and ensuring prosperity in the euro area are within our reach. bis central bankers ’ speeches

s non - standard measures i mentioned earlier are geared towards addressing primarily two types of premia : the liquidity risk and the redenomination risk. the ecb ’ s liquidity operations, such as the 3 - year long - term refinancing operations ( ltros ), are intended to relieve banks of liquidity and funding stress. they, therefore mainly aim to reduce liquidity risk in the money market. central banks have adopted different approaches as regards their non - standard measures. for instance, the fed, the bank of england and the bank of japan all engage in large - scale asset purchases. the fed also uses forward guidance. when viewed, however, from the perspective of the framework i just described, most nonstandard measures employed by the major central banks around the globe seem remarkably similar. they aim to implement the desired monetary policy stance, in conditions in which the stance may not be smoothly and homogeneously transmitted to the economy, or where a further easing of the stance through standard policy rate adjustments is hindered by the lower bound constraint. the unifying overall goal is to improve the effectiveness of monetary policy, in ways that can support the attainment of the monetary policy objectives. yet, the varying emphasis on instruments and the approaches used by central banks around the globe are tailor - made to the particular challenges of their economies. the particular challenge of the ecb is to operate in a multi - country environment : one monetary policy for 17 countries that constitute our currency union. unlike economies with a single fiscal authority or with a fully - fledged federal structure, the euro area comprises multiple sovereign states. the debt of each of these states has different liquidity and risk characteristics. in such a set - up there is no uncontroversial way to define the term structure of the risk - free rate. as a matter of fact, this means that there is no univocal measure of the term premium for the euro area as a whole. at the same time, during the crisis, normal heterogeneity has turned into detrimental fragmentation : a landscape with natural diverse scenery has turned into a dangerous surface with jagged cliffs and stumbling blocks. liquidity risk, which was a widespread concern for banks throughout the euro area at the start of the crisis, has become more concentrated as the crisis has progressed. fault lines between banking sectors with structural funding surpluses and banking sectors still suffering from a precarious access to credit run across national borders. the banking sector and the financial