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Some Euro area money market rates have been standing below the deposit facility rate since 2015, which coincided with the start of the Eurosystem’s public sector purchase program (PSPP). In this paper, we explore empirically the interactions between the PSPP and short term secured money market rates (repo rates). We document different channels through which asset purchases may affect the various segments of the Euro area repo market. Using proprietary data from the PSPP purchases and transactions made on the repo market for specific securities (“special”), our results show that the PSPP has contributed to push down repo rate, in particular prior to January 2017. On average, purchasing 1% of a bond outstanding is associated with a decline in its repo rate of -0.78 bps.

This paper shows how interbank market fragmentation disrupts monetary policy implementation. Fragmentation is defined as the situation where some banks are cut from the interbank loan market. The paper incorporates fragmentation in an otherwise standard theoretical model of monetary policy implementation, where profit maximizing banks, subject to reserve requirements, borrow and deposit funds at a central bank. It shows that in the presence of fragmentation, excess liquidity arises endogenously and the interbank rate declines below the central bank main rate. The interbank rate is then unstable. The paper documents that this is what happened in the Euro-Area since 2008. The model is also well suited to analyze unconventional monetary policy measures.