ECB Vice President Luis de Guindos said recent economic data showed that economic recovery is losing momentum. He noted that EU countries are being hit by second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. But it “doesn’t look like countries want to impose strict lockdowns such as seen in March.”

He also said mergers can improve banks’ profitability. “Removing cost excesses, over-capacity is more necessary than it was before the pandemic. Consolidation is a tool, it is not a goal in itself, but can be helpful in cost savings, in removing over-capacity.”

ECB President Christine Lagarde said the recovery from coronavirus pandemic “remains uncertain, uneven and incomplete”. Also, “new coronavirus-related restrictions currently being introduced across Europe will add to uncertainty for firms and households.”

Lagarde urged that “fiscal support and monetary policy support have to remain in place for as long as necessary and ‘cliff effects’ must be avoided.”

Separately, Governing Council member Klaas Knot said “At this moment, I don’t see any factors looming on the horizon that would make me think that interest rates will change significantly in the coming years”.

ECB Governing Council member Ignazio Visco said, policies have to remain extremely accommodating on the fiscal side as well as on the monetary side as we’re prepared to do for the euro area as a whole… We are here to consider the risks of stop and go and we will have to avoid too early withdrawals of policies. ”

Also a Governing Council member, Francois Villeroy de Galhau reiterated the Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme will “run until the crisis phase is over, and at least until next June.” “Given the uncertain situation today, it would be a mistake to decide an end date now” he added.

ECB Governing Council member Olli Rehn said, “some recent indicators, especially from the service sector, have been somewhat disappointing, which amplifies the downside risk to the economic recovery.” He added. “The shape of the recovery in my view could be best described as a truncated square root.”

Rehn also noted Fed’s change to average inflation targeting. He said, “while price level targeting as suggested by (Former Fed Chair) Ben Bernanke or average inflation targeting is open to criticism from the point of view of communication, in this context is nevertheless worth exploring in depth.”

He’s preferring a single-point inflation target rather than “below but close to 2%”. “This would also imply that we would accept inflation overshooting the point target or undershooting the point target for a period of time, as long as we’re on path to converging to our medium term, symmetric price stability target.”