Being here in London tonight, allow me to highlight one crucial moment 5 years ago, when the functioning of sovereign debt markets in the euro area was severely undermined in the presence of redenomination risk fears. On July 26, 2012, our President Mario Draghi gave his famous “Whatever it takes” speech. Shortly after, the ECB announced its Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT) programme.
Of course, I will be more than willing to take your questions afterwards. First of all, the most prominent example of European financial integration currently is the establishment of the “Single Euro Payments Area”– in short, SEPA. The SEPA project, as well as other integration projects in payment systems, pre-dated the current financial crisis.