(6)Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting and ongoing need for a high degree of monetary policy accommodation, which in turn crucially relies on the undeterred functioning of the bank-based transmission channel of monetary policy, the Governing Council considers that such exceptional circumstances warrant the temporary exclusion (until 31 March 2022) of certain exposures to Eurosystem central banks from the calculation of institutions’ total exposure measures pursuant to Article 429a(5) of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013.