The Eurosystem will also continue to monitor progress in this field by issuing its fourth SEPA progress report at the end of 2005. A second example of our role as catalyst for private sector activities is the Short-Term European Paper (STEP) initiative that was set up by the ACI Financial Markets Association.
As we know, this market segment is not only smaller than its counterpart in the United States (the US market for commercial paper has an outstanding volume of around EUR 1,3 trillion, compared with some EUR 750 billion in Europe), but it is also not yet integrated on a pan-European scale.