What to make of the assertion that “the ECB has given money to banks”?

One “left-wing criticism” of the euro zone’s expansionary monetary policy ( and quantitative easing) is that the money created by the ECB has been given to banks and not to those in need of it (poor households, investment s in the energy transition). This has led to proposals that the ECB carry out directly some transfers or investments and finance them by creating money. But it is important to understand that this is a problem of fiscal and not monetary policy choices. If the European countries had chosen to increase public transfer payments to households and public investment in the energy transition, they would have financed this spending by issuing bonds, which the ECB would have bought by creating money . This is the exact equivalent of using money directly to finance such spending or investment. It is also important to understand that banks or institutional investors do not receive money under quantitative easing: they use the money they hold to buy public sector bonds that finance the fiscal deficit, then they sell bonds to the central bank and get back the money they used initially. If transfer payments to households and public investment are considered to have been insufficient, then it is governments’ budgetary choices and not monetary policy that should be criticised.