To stabilize the foreign exchange markets, meanwhile, the Bank was very active in supplying foreign currency liquidity to financial institutions, using the nation’s foreign reserves and the proceeds of currency swaps with the US Federal Reserve.
Attention is now focused on negotiations to agree a Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive. This would ensure that authorities throughout Europe would have the means to intervene decisively when problems occur and that the costs of dealing with failing banks fall in a clearly defined order on the owners and creditors.