" (ECB, 2007)

Operational efficiency is held to be the most important of all the principles of operation for the ECB and can be defined as "the capacity of the operational framework to enable monetary policy decision to feed through as precisely and as fast as possible to short-term money market rates. These in turn, through the monetary policy transmission mechanism, affect the price level." (ECB, 2007) Equal treatment and harmonization is a principle that holds that credit institutions must be treated equally regardless of their size or their location in the euro area. Simplicity and transparency are said to "ensure the intentions behind monetary policy operations are correctly understood. The principle of continuity aims at avoiding major changes in instruments and procedures, so that central banks and their counterparties can draw on experience when participating in monetary policy operations. The principle of safety requires that the Eurosystem's financial and...
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