It would certainly have prompted a long dragged out legal battle which could have had serious knockon effects both for CLICO and for the rest of the financial system. With slow progress being made via moral suasion and with new legislation on the way the case for intervention was even less defensible.
First, the international importance of the euro, and that of any other currency, can be measured and assessed on the basis of several criteria, notably: the role it plays in international trade and in global financial markets; the extent of its use by authorities as a reserve, intervention and anchor currency; and its possible use by the public or firms outside the euro area as a parallel currency, held for transaction purposes in the form of cash or bank deposits.