ECB Begins Buying Asset-backed Securities Under Private QE

The European Central Bank said Friday that it has begun buying asset-backed securities, as seeks to get banks to lend and revive the economy. "Following publication of legal act on the implementation of the ABS purchasing program, the Eurosystem has started the purchases on 21/11/2014," the ECB said on its Twitter feed. The purchases are expected to last for two years, Draghi said at a press conference in early October. Earlier in the year, the central bank laid out plans to buy asset-backed securities and covered bonds, dubbed private or mini QE. Investors have had the general idea that the ECB was looking to boost the bank's balance sheet by around a trillion euros ($1.24 trillion). At a banking conference in Frankfurt on Friday, Draghi said the central bank will "do what it must" on asset buying to lift inflation.