These mixed results are not surprising, as sovereign debt can be used in most
circumstances, as collateral in transactions with domestic central banks (Bank for International
Settlements, 2013), the lender of last resort. Thus, in periods of broad liquidity stress, banks can
substitute private market funds for central bank financing using their sovereign debt holdings as
collateral, and remain viable institutions (Drechsler et al. 2013). However, as noted in the next
section, stress at the sovereign level may affect bank financing through some additional
channels.