As shown by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's lending to Bear Stearns, and years ago by the Bank of Japan's provision of emergency liquidity assistance to Yamaichi Securities, whether a central bank extends lending to financial institutions as a lender of last resort for banks is critically important for financial system stability.
Representatives of national central banks participate in the board’s work on a rotating basis and the European Commission participates as an observer. The activities of the ERPB are very much linked to the challenges and priorities for innovation in retail payments. I will talk about some of these issues, in particular instant payments, in more detail in the third part of my speech.