An additional sign of risk aversion is that market participants have shifted from the unsecured to the secured market. Let me now address cross-border lending by banks. Looking at price-based indicators, we see two different phases; first, until 2007, a gradual convergence across countries of the rates that banks charged for new loans to non-financial corporations.
We embrace transparency—as you recognized last year—and embed communications in all our plans at the start of the planning process, rather than tacking them on as an afterthought at the end. This approach led us to take on some of the projects that you have highlighted.