In the case of the Bank of Japan, on-site examinations of financial institutions were introduced in 1928 based on the experience of the financial crisis after World War I. The Bank of Japan Act was revised in 1998 to strengthen the independence of monetary policy.
But I will revert to this later. Let me first emphasise that research plays a crucial role for the Eurosystem as much as for other central banks. Research provided an essential input to the definition of the ECB’s pricestability monetary policy strategy as well as to the design of its operational framework.