Lender of last resort
The central bank's role of supplying liquidity to a solvent bank when no one else will lend to it.
How to read the number
The classical rule is to lend freely, against good collateral, at a penalty rate: that cures a shortage of liquidity and does not rescue an institution that is already insolvent.
When the metric lies
In the middle of a crisis the line between illiquidity and insolvency is invisible, and the decision is taken on knowingly incomplete information.
Also known as: emergency liquidity