mean by teething troubles, or if this doesn ’ t depend upon target, if target doesn ’ t really have any problems, are there other problems which have been encountered or can you say, no, there aren ’ t any other problems? duisenberg : structural problems and the problems which mr noyer has just indicated, the problems that there were mainly the result of human errors and sometimes human ignorance. the operational personnel at the various commercial banking institutions has to get used to the new techniques, even to writing the new instructions to their computer, sometimes they make mistakes which they will learn to avoid in the very near future, but which then cause hiccups in the smooth process of transferring these large payments from one country to another. so far it looks like there are no systemic problems with target, target is functioning extremely well. to be quite honest, the teething problems, or birth pangs, or whatever you may want to call them, were rather smaller than we had thought at some moment that they might emerge. we regard it as quite normal that there are these problems. if you suddenly switch over to a real - time gross settlement cross - border payment system which, as i indicated, already within three days turns out to be the largest in the world encompassing more than 5, 000 credit institutions, it is no wonder that there may be some ripples in the water sometimes but that ’ ll settle down. – 6 – question : there is one additional question on target : which consequences does it have, this closing down later? can you quantify it, that it brings additional costs to the banks, and how much? duisenberg : no, on the contrary, it is more or less the result of the banks, the banks ’ eagerness to be able to make more and more transfers even on this day, and they asked for that only in their own interest. i can assure you, this does not create more costs. question : my question is quite similar to the one before, but i ’ d like to have your opinion about the forex control system that the german and japanese governments suggest. what can you do to control forex rates when you have the big power now? duisenberg : well, what i can do is a lot, but what i want to do is nothing. it ’ s as simple as that. i mean, the same question was put to mr greenspan a few weeks ago when we had this exchange here in frankfurt, and

confirm our intention to maintain this rate for the foreseeable future. i should now like to inform you about the governing council ’ s review of the changeover to the euro. first and foremost, i am happy to be in a position to report that, overall, the transition to the euro within the eurosystem and the banking and financial industry has been accomplished to our satisfaction. with regard to the changeover weekend itself, the ecb informed you, by means of a first press release issued in the evening of 3 january 1999, that there had been no reports of any incidents that would have impaired the smooth start of the system. with regard to the first experiences of our operational existence, let me focus in particular on the performance of the target system. overall, during the first days of operation, the target system has functioned well. target has contributed substantially to the integration of the euro money market and it has made possible the – 3 – consolidation of the treasury management of institutions with different activity centres throughout europe. target has handled more cross - border payments than anticipated in these early days of monetary union and, in doing so, has demonstrated its processing capacities. the problems which are being experienced in this initial period can be regarded as teething troubles ; after all, it is completely normal for operators – both in commercial banks and at the central bank level – to need some time to adapt to the system and to the new euro environment. in this respect, it is worth noting that more than 5, 000 credit institutions are currently participating directly in target. the value of cross - border transactions settled through target already exceeded eur 310 billion on the second operating day and this figure does not yet include domestic 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. in addition to the news concerning target, the ecb also informed you, by means of a press release on 5 january 1999, that its first refinancing operation – announced on 4 january 1999 – was completed successfully. also here, the governing council obviously recognised that a learning process is still under way. the governing council will continue studying the best ways to adapt the liquidity provision to the changing conditions of this initial period. as a final point, as indicated at our press conference on 22 december 1998, the governing council today revisited the issue of front - loading euro banknotes and coins. the governing council holds the view that front - loading