One such occasion was the management of the cash changeover in early 2002; another test of the resilience of the framework came after the terrorist attacks in September 2001. The present market turmoil provides a new challenge to the framework, perhaps the biggest so far. Let me briefly summarise the way in which the different features of the framework have proved to be important.
First of all, the flexibility of the operational framework has proven to be extremely valuable, because it has allowed the ECB to adjust its liquidity supply at any time in line with the changing demand for central bank balances.