Glossary

Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) - the potentially unlimited purchase of euro area sovereign bonds on the secondary market by the European Central Bank. The announcement concerning OMT was made by ECB President Mario Draghi in September 2012. Its purpose was to “safeguard an appropriate monetary policy transmission and the singleness of the monetary policy” with the underlying aim of maintaining the integrity of the euro area.
OMT would only be carried out in conjunction with future cases of ESM financial assistance programmes or precautionary programmes, provided that they include ESM primary market purchases. OMT may also be considered for Member States currently under a macroeconomic adjustment programme when they will be regaining bond market access. Further information is available on the ECB website.

The amount of a loan that is currently owed by a beneficiary country to the ESM or EFSF. It is the difference between the disbursed amount and any loan repayments made.