fail? could it end up having to print money? will this involve it operating outside of the european treaties? we are already on the front line and we are fully playing our part as the central bank responsible for all 19 countries that share the single currency, including greece. the liquidity provided to greek banks by the eurosystem ( the ecb and the bank of greece ) has increased from €45 billion in december 2014 to €119 billion today, which gives you an idea of the extent of the support provided by the ecb to greek firms and households. however, our ability to act is governed by rules stemming from the treaties, which have been approved by european citizens : on the one hand, we can only lend to greek banks if they are solvent and provide collateral, and on the other hand, we are not allowed to lend to the greek government ( or any other government ). it is for the governments of the euro area, which together form the eurogroup, to decide whether they wish to lend to the greek government and under what conditions, not for the ecb. in 2012 mario draghi said he would do whatever it takes to save the euro, but within the ecb ’ s mandate. the ecb is an institution that has powerful instruments, but it can only use them within the narrow scope that has been set for it by the treaties, under the supervision of the european parliament and the court of justice of the european union. respecting the law is fundamental to respecting democracy. that being said, i refuse to discuss a greek exit from the euro area because we are not working within that framework. we are financing the greek economy and we are working alongside the imf and the european commission to secure an agreement with athens, with the aim of keeping greece in the euro area. should greece ’ s debt be restructured? this question is not taboo, as the greek debt has already been restructured for private banks. as for the public creditors, they have already agreed to significant adjustments regarding the extension of repayment periods and rate cuts, with the result that the greek debt burden is now significantly lower than that of italy or spain as a percentage of national income. should more be done? the answer will depend on the final terms of the agreement between the creditors and the greek authorities. this is the yardstick against which we will reassess the sustainability of the debt. the money that is at stake belongs to taxpayers in euro area countries, so it is for their

facility and the deposit facility has been significantly reduced to a more normal level. a further confirmation of the increasing integration of money markets in the euro area is the growing use of payment and securities settlement systems. on 5 january 1999 the value of crossborder transactions settled through target had already exceeded eur 310 billion. including domestic real - time gross settlement ( rtgs ) transactions, which themselves accounted for at least another eur 660 billion, the total value of transactions settled was therefore almost eur 1, 000 billion. this amount corresponds to about 17 % of last year ’ s gdp of the euro area. in the meantime, the total volume of transactions has increased further. moreover, the extensive use of the so - called correspondent central banking model ( ccbm ) – a mechanism which permits banks to make cross - border use of eligible assets as collateral in monetary policy operations and payment systems – suggests that market integration is proceeding well. the target system, the cross - border payment system of the escb, has contributed substantially to the integration of the euro money market and has made possible the consolidation of the treasury management of institutions with different activity centres throughout europe. target has processed more cross - border payments than anticipated in these early days of monetary union and, in so doing, has amply demonstrated its processing capacities. given the extensive use of the system, the ecb recently decided to extend the operating hours of the target system by one hour to 7 p. m. for a limited period ending on 31 january 1999. this should alleviate some of the time pressure on commercial banks when familiarising themselves with the target rules. similarly, the governing council decided that, during this transition period, the deposit facility of the eurosystem would be available until one hour after the closure of target. i should also like to mention the results of the two first main refinancing operations of the ecb. eur 75 allocated at a fixed rate of 3 % to the banking system under the first operation, while the amount for the second operation was, under the same conditions, eur 48 billion. in addition, on 13 january 1999 the ecb allocated eur 45 billion in three tranches with maturities of 42, 70 and 105 days through its first longer - term financing operation, at marginal single rates of, respectively, 3. 13 %, 3. 10 % and 3. 08 %. we have provided sufficient liquidity to allow credit institutions, on aggregate, to neutralise their monetary reserve deficit relatively