I will start with some brief remarks about the current economic situation and monetary policy and then turn to the actions that the Federal Reserve has taken this year to help ensure that the banking system remains a source of strength during the recovery from the COVID event, the term I use for the complex set of responses in both the private and public sectors to the outbreak of COVID19.
I therefore wish to thank you for the invitation, but also to welcome you to the 14th Conference on Payments and Market Infrastructures, which our friends and colleagues from the Republic of North Macedonia, together with the central bank of the Netherlands, have been holding for years already, and with great success, I must add.