Trust is a term that is closely related to confidence and credibility. Trust is understood to mean when individuals share a mutual understanding that the rules of conduct governing their network work well and make things better for everyone. Trust can therefore be thought of as a kind of social capital - a shared asset that benefits everyone. Just as we speak about trust between individuals and public institutions, the same is true for publicly traded firms that interact with markets. With trust, economic systems and networks are more efficient for less effort is spent on monitoring and checking. With the establishment of trust, confidence is developed. Over time, as trust is built up, confidence and credibility are developed. Maintaining price stability is a key trust-building responsibility of the Swiss National Bank. Protracted changes in the price level, as a rule, stem from a malfunctioning of the monetary system. Price stability is important particularly because relative prices in our market economy govern the production and consumption of individual goods. Changes in the price level are liable to give misleading signals and lead to expensive mistakes in planning and investment. Inflation has other dire consequences. For the less fortunate - those unable to protect themselves against price increases - inflation means an erosion in purchasing power. This is especially true for fixed income investments. In contrast, for those that can protect themselves against inflation, it means  BIS Review 50/2002  1  that considerable resources are squandered in trying to hedge against inflation.

And I insist that, in the current circumstances, this decision must be taken promptly, if the necessary capital is to be raised for the projects that need to be developed. Firms in other sectors of the economy, savings bank workers, the public in general and welfare projects will ultimately be the true beneficiaries of concentration processes conducted in accordance with the criteria of rationality I have referred to. The Banco de España, in its capacity as the supervisory authority, has adapted the organisational structure of its supervisory services to the new savings bank map, in order to monitor meticulously the progress of each project. Before concluding, I must draw attention to an urgent outstanding task. Over the past year, savings banks have performed an excellent job of self-criticism, reform and adaptation which, in my opinion, has only been partly publicised and explained to all parties interested in their welfare: the financial markets – on which they depend for the lifeblood of funds to conduct their activity – and the public, who are the ultimate beneficiaries of the banking services the savings banks provide. Businesses, balance sheets and income statements have been integrated, market values, capital gains and capital losses have been recognised, and assets have been written off in the concentration processes, which will be recorded in the accounts at year-end 2010. This overhaul and the key future milestones in the concentration processes (relating to resources, systems, human resources, etc.) have not been sufficiently communicated to all interested parties.