our TARGET system that has been operational since the first day of Monetary Union. In fact, the cross-country standard deviation of the average overnight lending rates among euro area countries was as low as three basis points in early 1999 and has since decreased even further to just one basis point. By comparison, in January 1998, i.e.
one year before the start of Monetary Union, this indicator stood higher than 130 basis points. Our indicators for the one-month and 12-month maturities also consistently show a highly integrated unsecured money market.