of very sensitive information, and the disclosure of this information may have severe consequences. although the ecb became aware of the subpoenas being imposed on swift in june 2002, this information could neither be transmitted to third parties nor be made public. moreover, the ecb has no authority to supervise swift with regard to compliance with data protection laws. the difficult questions arising in that regard must be addressed by the relevant data protection authorities, as data protection is a matter which falls outside the ecb ’ s competence. 3. conclusions let me now conclude my remarks with a brief summary of the main points i have made. first, the g10 central banks, including the ecb, perform the oversight of swift under the leadership of the nbb. as such, our responsibilities are precisely to ensure that swift has an appropriate framework in place to avoid systemic risks. in executing these responsibilities, the central banks – as overseers – rely not on a comprehensive legal framework, including powers to impose sanctions, but on “ moral suasion ”. second, compliance with the us subpoenas fell outside the context of financial stability and thus outside the remit of our oversight role. third, we did not give swift any blessing in relation to its compliance with these subpoenas. in fact, we could not have given any such authorisation even if we had wanted to, as this fell outside our competence. therefore, swift remained solely responsible for its decisions. the conclusion that swift ’ s compliance with the us subpoenas was and is beyond the remit of oversight by central banks remained unchallenged in the belgian data protection authority ’ s report of 27 september 2006.

gertrude tumpel - gugerell : financial integration and stability closing remarks by ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, member of the executive board of the european central bank, at the ecb colloquium “ european integration and stability ” in honour of ms gertrude tumpel - gugerell, ecb, frankfurt am main, 19 may. * * * it is my great pleasure to close this colloquium after an afternoon of inspiring contribution and presentations, stimulating discussion and a lot of food for thought for the future. it was over 12 hundred years ago here in frankfurt, where charlemagne ( charles the great ) introduced a wide reform of the coin system. at the great synod in frankfurt in 794, he not only harmonized the coins with respect to weight, size and design, he also decided that the new coins would be commonly introduced and accepted, making the “ carolingian denar ” the common currency and means of payment on both sides of the rhine. an impressive example of early stage financial and monetary integration, which shows that such integration has been preoccupation throughout history. this afternoon ’ s discussion centred around financial integration and stability, the challenges of this relationship and the broader link to overall european integration. central banks – also the ecb – have always set out the great benefits of financial integration. for very good reasons – i think : an integrated financial market is the basis for a smooth and equal transmission of monetary policy, it increases the efficiency and overall welfare of the economy, and enhances the resilience of the financial system from risk diversification. we have promoted the integration of the euro area ’ s financial market with concrete action – particularly in the area of payments systems and market infrastructures, in which i had the pleasure to work on for the past 8 years. for example, we created an integrated real time large value payment system, target, which today is the first market infrastructure to be completely integrated and harmonized at the european level. [ this has been instrumental to the integration of money markets and wholesale banking activities in europe. ] we have also supported very much the creation of the single euro payments area ( sepa ) in the area of retail payments and have decided to setup a fully harmonized platform for securities settlements, t2s. but despite our commitment and our support for financial integration, we also had to learn – with the experience of the past 4 years in mind – that financial integration and financial stability do not always