one year before the start of Monetary Union, the cross-country standard deviation was still higher than 130 basis points. In fact, such integration is a sine qua non for monetary policy implementation, since only an integrated interbank market ensures an even distribution of central bank liquidity and a homogeneous level of short-term interest rates across the euro area.
And this rapid integration has been mostly supported by the establishment of the related payment system infrastructure, i.e. our TARGET system, which has been operational since the first day of Monetary Union.