sector to withstand even a substantial deterioration in the economic or stockmarket climate or a sharp rise in interest rates. nevertheless, some banks have announced that they now have an increased appetite for risk. a general rise in risk acceptance would render the banking sector more sensitive to deteriorations in the macroeconomic or stockmarket environment. system oversight at the media conference in december last year, i reported in detail on the background to system oversight, i. e. the oversight of payment and securities settlement systems. today i am limiting myself given the recent publication of the financial stability report - to a briefing on the current situation. the day on which the new national bank act took effect - 1 may 2004 - also saw the entry into force of the new national bank ordinance. among other things, the ordinance contains the implementation provisions for system oversight. in particular, these set out the minimum requirements for systemically important financial market infrastructure and the principles of ongoing system oversight by the national bank. the task for the next few months will be to determine which payment and securities settlement systems are to be classed as systemically important. then we will have to define the practical modalities that are best suited for implementing ongoing system oversight as effectively and efficiently as possible. oversight is focused on infrastructure that is vital for the swiss financial centre, i. e. especially those systems which together constitute the swiss value chain. in addition to swiss exchange swx, which will remain under the supervision not of the national bank but of the sfbc, this infrastructure consists primarily of the payment system swiss interbank clearing ( sic ), the securities settlement system secom and the central counterparty x - clear. the first talks have been held with representatives of these systems to establish the implementation of system oversight. investigations over the next few months will clarify whether other systems are also to be subject to oversight. by the end of july, all payment and securities settlement systems in switzerland must report to the national bank. as mentioned earlier, system oversight was not the product of a crisis. this can also be seen from the new financial stability report, which examines specific aspects of the current financial market infrastructure and gives them a clean bill of health. the aim of system oversight is to ensure that the high levels of safety and efficiency which characterise the market infrastructure of the swiss financial centre are safeguarded for the future. emergency liquidity assistance : a means of overcoming crises the national bank is not only active in prevention - i. e. in the macroprudential oversight of

benoit coeure : interview in les echos interview with mr benoit coeure, member of the executive board of the european central bank, in les echos, conducted by mr nicolas barre, ms catherine chatignoux, mr jeanphilippe lacour, mr etienne lefebvre, mr guillaume maujean, mr dominique seux and mr francois vidal, and published on 29 june 2015. * * * is greece ’ s exit from the euro area now the most probable hypothesis? greece exiting the euro area, which used to be theoretical, can unfortunately no longer be ruled out. it ’ s the result of the greek government choosing to end discussions with its creditors and resorting to a referendum, causing the eurogroup not to prolong the second adjustment programme. the ecb, like the other european authorities, wishes greece to stay in the euro area. that ’ s the substance of the proposal made last week by the commission, the imf and the ecb in the form of a programme of reforms and a financing offer that is much more favourable than anything proposed in the past. europe has never abandoned greece. in what way were these proposals more favourable? they gave greece the time and the freedom to reform its economy, for example its labour market, while envisaging a demanding budgetary path, but taking account of the deteriorating economic climate. the primary surplus requested was reduced to 1 % of gdp in 2015, compared with 3 % previously. we were also proposing larger cuts in military spending to create room for manœuvre elsewhere. so does the responsibility for breaking off talks lie entirely with greece? the decision to interrupt discussions was taken by the greek authorities. that also surprised us, for we were coming to the end of some quite focused and fruitful exchanges. you are talking about proposals in the past tense. does the ecb consider that the question to be put to the greeks in the referendum is already null and void, since the assistance arrangement will no longer be relevant from the evening of 30 june? the programme will indeed formally expire on tuesday evening. having said that, if the response is “ yes ” i have no doubt that the euro area authorities will find the means, one way or another, to honour the commitments that have been made. the question is a political one. it ’ s the greeks who hold the answer to that question. and if the greeks say “ no ” … that would be to refuse the offer made by the other 18 members of