and the self - employed. all these measures have been effective in alleviating the financial tensions generated by the crisis. these tensions took the form of a strong rise in sovereign and corporate debt yields, which were then largely reversed. the ecb ’ s action has also helped keep bank lending flows to companies notably robust in recent months and contributed to their cost holding at low levels. also crucial for these dynamics have been the government - implemented public guarantee programmes for bank lending. the ecb measures have further provided considerable room for manoeuvre for national authorities. in this second phase of the crisis, in which the recovery in economic activity is, as i said, incomplete, fragile and uneven across sectors in countries, actual inflation and inflation expectations are holding at very low levels. and it is to be expected in the medium term that the weakness of demand will continue exerting downward pressure on prices. against this background, on the ecb governing council we have made it clear that a high degree of monetary accommodation is needed to support the recovery and safeguard our price stability objective. specifically, we have reiterated our commitment to do what it takes to support the euro area economy in these extremely difficult circumstances. that includes ensuring that the common monetary policy is properly transmitted to all sectors of the economy and to all countries, and to prevent the financial fragmentation of the area. we also stand ready to adapt all our instruments should it be necessary. naturally, we must also remain vigilant regarding the risks to financial stability. evidently, the banking sector is facing this crisis from a healthier position than in the previous recession, which highlights the importance of the far - reaching changes made in this sector over the past decade. the ecb has also taken resolute action here. among other measures, it has allowed banks to use the capital buffers available, which were created precisely for situations such as the present one. but, undoubtedly, the crisis will significantly impact the quality of banks ’ credit portfolios, on a scale that will depend on its ultimate severity and which will be uneven across banks. the outcome will depend on banks ’ starting position, on their business model and on the distribution of their exposures to the sectors and regions most affected by the pandemic. accordingly, we supervisors must continue to closely monitor the risks to financial stability and we must be ready to provide a forceful, paneuropean response should such risks materialise. in short, european and national economic authorities must share the objective of preventing

philipp hildebrand : lessons from the crisis for global financial market infrastructure summary of a speech by mr philipp hildebrand, vice - chairman of the governing board of the swiss national bank, at the zermatt symposium, avenir suisse, zermatt, 25 august 2009. the complete speech can be found in german on the swiss national bank ’ s website ( www. snb. ch ). * * * the financial market infrastructure, in other words, the systems for trading, clearing and settling payments and financial instruments, is essential for the operation of the financial system. thus far in the financial crisis, financial market infrastructure has stood up well overall and helped to prevent the existing uncertainty in the financial system from becoming even greater. this holds true both for payment and settlement systems in switzerland and for the global financial market infrastructure. however, time and again, it becomes apparent that the infrastructure for clearing and settling transactions is not keeping up with rapidly growing financial markets. in recent years, this has been most obvious in the otc derivatives market. pressured by supervisory authorities and central banks, market participants are now developing safer and more efficient clearing and settlement arrangements for otc derivatives. these efforts include the establishment of central counterparties, which facilitate market participants ’ risk management, promote market transparency and reduce the complexity of the financial system. to the extent that the market infrastructure reduces the interconnections between individual financial institutions, it contributes to the long - term strategy aimed at finding ways of liquidating large and complex financial institutions in an orderly way. from a regulatory perspective, it is important to note that responsibility for ensuring that payment and settlement systems work smoothly and meet the requirements of the financial industry lies with the system operators and market participants. the role of regulatory authorities is to establish certain guidelines, especially for infrastructures that are of critical importance for the stability of the financial system, and to intervene rapidly in cases where market forces do not provide an adequate infrastructure.