Central banks play an important role in ensuring sufficient liquidity is available for financial markets. Historically, they have always acted as lenders of last resort by providing distressed institutions with liquidity, in addition to processing more routine operations, for example, by providing credit to support settlement in central bank money. Perceptions around accessing central bank liquidity have been progressively changing and today using central bank credit has become a commonly used liquidity management tool for many financial institutions. This shift started as a result of the financial crisis of 2008.
