In his Mansion House speech last night, Sir Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, announced that in the current turbulent period, the Bank of England will be commencing operations under the Extended Collateral Term Repo (ECTR) Facility. Activation of this Facility, introduced in December 2011, is intended to mitigate prospective risks to financial stability arising from a market-wide shortage of sterling liquidity by lending to the banking system against the widest range of collateral. The Bank intends to hold an ECTR auction at least monthly until further notice. The first auction under the ECTR Facility ... (full story)