countries, • instructed their correspondents in australia, belgium, brazil, canada, france, italy, japan, singapore, the united kingdom and the united states to execute payments in those countries, • received payment instructions from those countries and • booked the incoming payments in their own accounts, or passed on the amounts as domestic follow - up payments via eaf and els to the beneficiary credit institutions. the credit institutions participating in the test are to be regarded as the main players in payments in germany. they cover around 70 % of the market ( in eaf, as much as 90 % ) in national large - value payments, and a good 80 % of the market in cross - border payments. the bundesbank ’ s payment systems worked without a hitch and the credit institutions participating in the test in germany reported that their tests had been conducted successfully. we are therefore able to say with a clear conscience that payments in germany are ready for the year 2000. at a teleconference involving the european system operators and the new york clearing house, it was likewise reported that the tests had been conducted successfully. the initiator of the test, the new york clearing house, expressly pointed out that : • this test was a one - off event, and • is also non - repeatable because of its scale. despite all the satisfaction about the fact that the tests went extremely well, it must still be noted that this worldwide test was a unique and very demanding feat which demanded considerable organisational and technical input ; this was also true of the german banking industry. this can be illustrated by a single and, on the whole, rather marginal figure : on each of the test days approximately 100 persons were on duty at the bundesbank alone. in saying that, however, the global street test was only one milestone — albeit a very important and highly visible one — in our entire year 2000 project. in the german banking industry alone, the test was preceded by extensive internal testing on the part of all participants, by interbank interface and processing tests, and by a preliminary national test from may 31 to june 2, 1999. these confirmed the functional viability and robustness of the bundesbank ’ s systems and their year 2000 - compliant connection to customer systems. as far as german large - value payments are concerned, the global street test concludes an intensive and successful sequence of testing and does no more than document the fact that preparations were running smoothly and on schedule in “ finanz

- regulation are sufficient to ensure global welfare. we have seen that improvements are needed to preserve the safety of the global economic and financial system. these improvements concern rules of the game and procedures, but they also concern attitudes and underlying values. countries have to recognise the global impact of their policies and financial market players have to accept that the prime purpose of the financial sector is to serve the real economy. second, more than in the past, global governance must demonstrate a capacity to coordinate and decide extremely swiftly. a characteristic of the turbulences that intensified in september 2008 was the extreme rapidity in the succession of events as the crisis unfolded. the very high degree of interdependency between all economies calls for a much higher level of cooperation than in the past. third, the crisis has rightly accelerated the inclusion of emerging markets into the framework of global governance. but there are two reasons for this change. one is positive : the emerging economies are now economically and financially so important, and systemically so influential, that they must be fully involved in global governance. i hesitate to unveil the other reason that is not flattering for industrialised countries : they did not live up to their responsibilities prior to the crisis. now, the industrialised countries are called on to contribute to the stability and prosperity of the global economy within the new, more inclusive framework. looking ahead, we see that the global recovery has started to proceed at different speeds across regions, with a relatively modest recovery in advanced countries like the united states, japan and the euro area and a stronger expansion in the emerging economies. and yet, there is no time for complacency as recent tensions in financial markets have amply demonstrated. let me stress that it is important that the recovery should be measured in broader terms than the simple resumption of gdp growth and a return to sustainable fiscal positions : it means a full restoration of trust in our financial institutions ; it requires the healing of wounds inflicted by the irresponsible behaviour of some financial players on our societies and on the real economy ; and it requires renewed confidence that global governance is strong, broad and flexible enough to ensure global economic and financial stability and resilience in the future. thank you for your attention.