The two standing facilities – the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility – are open to counterparties on their own initiative. Accordingly, they usually form a corridor for euro area overnight money market rates. I should also like to say a few words on a subject which is particularly topical at this conference: payment systems.
The strengthening of the effective euro exchange over the past one and a half years has certainly had a significant impact on our low rate of inflation, and, given current levels of inflation, is therefore becoming increasingly relevant in our assessment of price stability. The risk of deflation, which would make deleveraging harder, is quite limited.