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- Mario Draghi, the ECB President
The European Central Bank cut its benchmark rate by 0.25 percent to 1 percent and offered banks unlimited cash for three years but rejected rumors it will buy bonds in unlimited quantities if euro zone leaders agree on tighter fiscal union.
"The [new measures are] to ensure enhanced access for the banking sector to liquidity and facilitate the functioning of the euro area money market," said the ECB President Mario Draghi.
"Overall, the ECB tries almost everything it can to prevent a credit crunch in the euro zone," Carsten Brzeski, an analyst with ING, wrote in a market note.
"Investors who had been expecting some kind of great immediate action that was going to fix things are starting to get nervous," said Fred Cannon, chief equity strategist at the investment firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.