I and other members of the Board are in strong agreement with the Administration that a fundamental lesson of the financial crisis is that we need to do a better job for consumers of financial products. In our view, the Federal Reserve has the resources, the structure, and the experience to execute an ongoing comprehensive program for effective consumer protection in financial services.
The exchange rate had more often become a source of shocks rather than a shock absorber.5 So the benefits of adopting the euro were compelling. One immediate benefit was the stabilisation of Slovakia’s exchange rate with key trading partners and the elimination of currency conversion costs.