cost of authorizing, clearing, and settling a debit card transaction reported by issuers that responded to our survey and provided that information. under the second alternative, an issuer would comply with the interchange fee standard as long as it does not receive an interchange fee above the cap. the proposed rule provides the same initial cap of 12 cents per transaction. the statute requires the board to collect data from card issuers or payment card networks as necessary to carry out the provisions of the statute ( and to publish aggregate data on a biannual basis ). the board expects that it would adjust the cap or safe harbor amounts in the future, if warranted by future data collections. fraud - prevention adjustment. the statute permits, but does not require, the board to allow for an adjustment to an interchange fee to account for an issuer ’ s costs in preventing fraud, provided the issuer complies with standards established by the board relating to fraudprevention activities. 12 the statute excludes fraud losses as a category of costs that may be recovered through the fraud - prevention adjustment. the proposed rule does not currently include a specific adjustment to the amount of interchange fees for an issuer ’ s fraudprevention costs because at the time the proposed rule was issued, the board had insufficient information upon which to propose a specific adjustment and the standards an we believe that both alternatives provide better economic incentives for covered issuers to improve the efficiency of their card operations than would be provided by an approach based solely on each issuer's allowable costs. the safe harbor in the first alternative and the cap in the second alternative are also intended to reduce the administrative compliance burden on industry participants and would improve the consistency and ease of enforcement by supervisors. efta § 920 ( a ) ( 5 ), 12 usc § 1693o - 2 ( a ) ( 5 ). bis central bankers ’ speeches issuer must meet to qualify to receive it. instead, the board requested comment on two general approaches and posed a number of questions related to those alternatives. under the first approach, the fraud adjustment would allow issuers to recover costs incurred for implementing major innovations that would likely result in substantial reductions in total, industry - wide fraud losses. under the second approach, the fraud adjustment would reimburse the issuer for reasonably necessary steps it takes to maintain an effective fraudprevention program. the second approach would not prescribe specific technologies that must be employed as part of the program. after

european central bank : press briefing a€ “ transcript transcript by mr jean - claude trichet, president of the european central bank, following the meeting of the governing council, frankfurt am main, 2 august 2007. * * * let me just say a few words and then i will be ready to respond to questions, as usual. recent economic developments and survey indicators confirm that sustained economic growth continued in the euro area through the second quarter. rising oil prices, emerging capacity constraints and the potential for stronger wage and cost dynamics, among other factors, imply upside risks to price stability over the medium term. the existence of upside risks to price stability at medium to longer - term horizons is confirmed by the strength of the underlying rate of monetary expansion : strong vigilance is therefore of the essence to ensure that risks to price stability over the medium term do not materialise. both, our previous economic and monetary analysis as expressed in particular in the last press conference have been fully confirmed by the ongoing information we have received since the last meeting of the governing council. let me also stress that we never precommit, we decide at the moment of the meeting of the governing council on the basis of the information that we have, facts and figures, and according to the judgement that we make at that moment. i re - emphasise that we never pre - commit. let me also say that we are experiencing a period of market nervousness, a period where we see volatility in markets in general and re - appreciation of risks. we think that these developments in financial markets deserve attention. shifts in market sentiment need careful monitoring. we will continue to pay great attention to the developments in the market over the period to come. i am now open to questions.