While it is clear that the fundamental rules and structures governing CDS markets will have to be thoroughly reviewed, a short-term priority in terms of enhancing the resilience of these markets is the establishment of central counterparty facilities. CCPs for CDSs will help, in particular, to diversify and share risk exposures and their strict margining procedures will reduce the incentive to take excessive risks.
The achievement of price stability is thus what we are accountable for, before anything else. While the ECB is bound to the primary objective of price-stability, it was left to the ECB to define price stability. Since the start of the euro in 1999, we have defined price stability as a level of inflation of below but close to 2% over the medium-term.