Detlev Ehrig

Customer loyalty is of great significance to any company, because it is the loyal clients who allow the business to generate stable income. The matter of customer loyalty has been the object of scrutiny for scientists, marketing specialists, and promoters of other beliefs for some time already. It has seen diversification of theories and spiral development, thereby drawing in ever new elements, including the issue of electronic environment, which provides a broad range of possibilities for establishing circles of loyal clients. The objective of the article is to determine and analyse the factors which affect the attraction and retention of loyal customers by the means of electronic environment and electronic marketing activities. The authors employed quantitative and qualitative research methods: grouping, analyses, statistical methods, etc. The theoretical and methodological framework of the article is formed of scientific studies and publications, publications in mass media, and professional literature, as well as the statistical information from official sources and the information obtained as a result of the authors’ researches.

The recent European debt crisis has generated a growing importance of the European Central Bank (ECB). The ECB was forced to take measures far beyond its traditional role to stabilize monetary markets and inflation. The ECB has adopted a new function as a lender of last resort, providing banks and governments with almost unlimited liquidity and purchasing government bonds
within Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT). This new role of the ECB has been hotly debated.
In Germany, the debate even reached the Constitutional Court. The article will give a survey of
the fundamentals of a lender of last resort and of the debate referring to the arguments of the ECB
and Bundesbank. It is indeed questionable whether the ECB has a mandate for its new monetary
and nolens volens fiscal role. Regardless of whether the arguments are convincing, new steps towards
new fiscal arrangements and a banking union are needed to stabilize the euro area.