spite of the efforts undertaken by the european commission and the national authorities, as well as by other players, the use of the euro is currently still limited. if the use of the euro as a unit of account or for non - cash payments were more wide - spread among the public, the introduction of the euro banknotes and coins on 1 january 2002 would be seen as far less inconvenient. the public sometimes tends to reduce the complex activity of any one institution to a very simple concept. the ecb's tasks are really complex, involving monetary policy decisions, statistics, monetary policy operations, payment systems, legal issues, etc. all these activities are often relatively unknown to the man in the street. he or she will, in one year's time, tend to identify the ecb with the single image of the euro banknotes. the euro banknotes will be seen as the face of the ecb. the euro, our currency, and the ecb, our central bank, will be identified by the public with these banknotes. therefore, next year is also of paramount importance for the public image of the ecb as an organisation. i am fully aware of the fact that representatives of professional parties involved in the euro cash changeover are attending this conference. allow me to conclude by thanking you all for your great efforts, your understanding and your co - operation in making this remarkable historical moment happen. let me now give the floor to raymond van buuren.

beyond capital adequacy. however, banks should take into account the cost to the companies and balance it against the benefits. we talk of sharing of credit information, which is vital given the frequent occurrence of business cycles and their consequences. we have institutions called credit information companies which provide such information to banks on the individual companies. further, a transition story of how ratings have been moving over time is also available which the bankers should monitor and pick up and regularly draw a parallel rating map of cras which they should compare with their own models and rating. this will be one useful check which banks can create for their entire portfolio. second, i do see a lot of use in the products offered by cras and there is need to see how we can further integrate the two models of credit risk assessment of banks and cras. there is a suggestion that banks should de - risk their own portfolio by asking companies looking for long term finance to partly borrow from the corporate debt market. this way the market intelligence of cras which is mandatory for bond market borrowing would be an additional input that would come in handy for banks when they are lending money to the entity. this is bis central bankers ’ speeches even more pertinent today because of alm issues and the demand for funds that would arise once the economy picks up and infrastructure starts to boom. banks may not be able to fully meet the demand for funds to the borrowers. we have to start working out in detail the implications of such a move, but in this forum it is worth germinating such a thought considering that we have experts from both banks and cras present here. thirdly, one segment which particularly becomes vulnerable to economic shocks is the sme segment. they are disadvantaged on account of their size and also are the first ones to get affected when the downturn takes place. cras have models in place for rating of smes and the nsic scheme gives a subsidy to smes for the rating. it will be a good idea for banks to require a rating from these smes before giving a loan so that there is a check in place before the loan is disbursed. given the large number of smes in our space, it may not be possible for banks to do a due diligence for one and all. this is where the systems organized by cras can be harnessed by banks so that there is some homework already done which is useful for banks. fourth, as you may be aware,