Mario Draghi has made his leaked proposal official: the European Central Bank will buy unlimited amounts of troubled euro zone debt on the open markets in an effort to push down sovereign borrowing costs. The NYT’s Jack Ewing and Steven Erlanger write that the plan puts the ECB’s “unlimited financial clout behind an effort to protect Spain and Italy from financial collapse” and “effectively spreads responsibility for repaying national debts to the euro zone countries”.
The plan, called “Outright Monetary Transactions” (OMT), will purchase bonds maturing in the next three years, after countries have made a request to the euro zone’s bailout fund and fully agreed to its conditions. If countries renege on their promises in areas like banking reform or fiscal policy overhauls, the ECB will terminate the bond purchases. Importantly, the ECB will not have seniority over private bondholders.
Source: blogs. reuters
