. ecb. int / stats / money / surveys / lend / html / index. en. html bis central bankers ’ speeches for banks, this would reduce their ability to provide loans to the economy. third, interest rates on government bonds influence the level of interest rates that firms have to pay when issuing their bonds and that banks use to price their loans. government bond yields are the basis for the pricing of all assets, from fixed - income instruments to equity. the decision to intervene was a decision to support the discovery of prices in markets which are key to transmitting our policy intentions and which had become highly dysfunctional. as tensions grew in the summer and autumn of 2011, we strengthened our response further. ( see slide 20 ). in our first three - year longer - term refinancing operation in december last year we provided around €489 billion of stable funding to 523 banks in the euro area. in the second one – conducted on 29 february this year – we supplied €530 billion to 800 banks. both long - term credit operations aimed to break a vicious circle in which sovereign funding stress impedes bank access to longer - term financing and ultimately disrupts the flow of credit to households and companies. it ’ s worth noting that the second operation reached a much wider group of banks – among them many small banks providing funds specifically to small and medium - sized enterprises. its effect was heightened by an expanded range of collateral, which particularly facilitated the participation of small and medium - sized banks. importantly, risks related to the expansion of collateral have been mitigated by stringent risk control measures. for instance, the haircuts on additional credit claims are very high so as to make the riskiness of these additional credit claims about the same as that of the rest of the collateral, for which the haircuts are lower. we are confident that wider participation by banks can lead to a broader dissemination of credit to small and medium - sized borrowers. the right half of this picture shows the impact of the new measures on the eurosystem ’ s balance sheet. ( see slide 21 ). at present, we are seeing some encouraging, albeit early, signs of normalisation across financial market segments. broad money growth increased in january, as did loan growth to private sectors. we are also seeing lower stock market volatility ( slide 22, left - hand chart ). money market credit spreads have edged lower recently ( slide 22, right - hand chart ). similarly,

the other hand, is the stage in which the bank offers customized products and services targeted at a niche customer segment, the high net worth individuals. retail banking focused solely at a niche customer segment may also be termed as private banking. 10. a graphical representation of the positioning of mass retail banking vis - a - vis other segments of banking is as under : bis central bankers ’ speeches 11. as i mentioned earlier, there is a lot of confusion around the ambit of retail banking. this is not really confined only to emerging markets but is a global phenomenon. the confusion primary emanates from whether the banking services offered for entrepreneurial purposes should be considered as part of retail banking or not. many of the banks include the banking services extended to small borrowers and sme clients also as part of mass retail banking. in my view, the retail banking in its most basic form is only about servicing the individuals ( mostly the masses ) for non - entrepreneurial purposes. the retail banking over a period of time can make a transition to class banking and banking for entrepreneurial purposes for the individuals, for agriculture or for small businesses ( smes ). this is particularly so as many aspects of retail banking in terms of delivery of services ( large number of small value transactions ) and risk management practices ( scoring model, model based capital assessment ) are also applicable to small businesses run by individual entrepreneurs. characteristics of retail ( mass ) banking 12. let me now turn to the major characteristics of the retail banking. the products and services under retail banking are supposed to be standardized. in other words, they are “ offthe - shelf ” products without any customization for individuals. for comparison sake, i would equate them to products offered at a branded retail store. at retail stores, you pay for what you see and what is mentioned on the price tag. there is uniformity, transparency and nondiscrimination about the products and services offered. hence, the products offered by retail banks also should have similar characteristics. further, retail banking products are offered across multiple channels and at multiple places ( branch, internet, atm, telephone ). the banks have to aim at delivering these services in the most efficient manner. as the retail ( mass ) banking involves reaching out to a group of individuals, the banks also need to have appropriate systems, structure, manpower and processes in place to deal with the group, group characteristics, group behaviour and group dynamics for the target clientele. pre - conditions for success