The European Central Bank announced on Friday that it has begun buying asset-backed securities.

More specifically, via a tweet, ECV said that “following publication of legal act on the implementation of the ABS purchase programme, the Eurosystem has started the purchases on 21/11/2014.”

The purpose of this move is to encourage banks to lend and boost the economy. It is part of a general strategy which ECB chief Mario Draghi hopes will increase its balance sheet by up to 1 trillion euros.

It should be noted that ECB is already buying covered bonds, which is considered a secure form of debt.