##ncy : no “ wait and see what happens next ”. in recent years, a significant part of the banking system in several countries has been kept alive by public capital injections and state guarantees, plus the liquidity support of the ecb. most banks were no longer masters of their destiny. in hindsight, many of them generated instability and became part of the problem. now, we need them to be active parts of the solution. hence the call for a european banking union : the biggest cogwheel that we can complete right now. i hope that you agree that we have come a long way since the start of the crisis. but we still have further to go! implementing the banking union will take a great deal of hard work and cooperation. however, once it ’ s in place we shall have a healthier financial system. to conclude, let me quote alexis de tocqueville here : “ i cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all. ” thank you for your attention. bis central bankers ’ speeches

considered very carefully the possible risks – and we designed our operations to minimise them. but i am aware that some observers in this country remain concerned about the potential impact of this policy. i would therefore like to use this opportunity to go through those concerns – one by one – and explain our views. first, omts will not lead to disguised financing of governments. we have specifically designed our interventions to avoid this. they will take place solely on secondary markets, where bonds that have already been issued are traded. if interventions take place, they will involve buying government debt from investors, not from governments. all this is fully consistent with the treaty ’ s prohibition on monetary financing. moreover, they will focus on shorter maturities and leave room for market discipline. second, omts will not compromise the independence of the ecb. the ecb will continue to take all decisions related to omts in full independence. it will decide whether to intervene based on its own assessment of monetary policy transmission and with the aim of safeguarding price stability. the fact that governments have to comply with conditionality will actually protect our independence. the ecb will not be forced to step in for a lack of policy implementation. third, omts will not create excessive risks for euro area taxpayers. such risks would only materialise if a country were to run unsound policies. this is explicitly prevented by the esm programme. and we have been very clear that each time a programme starts being reviewed, we will routinely suspend operations and resume them only if the review has been concluded positively. this will ensure that the ecb intervenes only in countries where the economy and public finances are on a sustainable path. fourth, omts will not lead to inflation. we have designed our operations so that their effect on monetary conditions will be neutral. for every euro we inject, we will withdraw a euro. in our assessment, the greater risk to price stability is currently falling prices in some euro area countries. in this sense, omts are not in contradiction to our mandate : in fact, they are essential for ensuring we can continue to achieve it. moreover, we see no signs that our announcement has affected inflation expectations. they continue to be firmly anchored. this is testament to our track record on price stability over the last decade and our credible commitment to maintaining price stability. the citizens of the euro area can be confident that we will remain permanently alert to risks to price stability. we have all the necessary tools at our disposal to