It is against this background, that the Governing Council decided a number of policy measures at its last meeting, including an extension of its forward guidance on policy interest rates, a confirmation of the reinvestment policy and favourable pricing conditions for our new series of targeted longer term refinancing operations (TLTRO III).
And yet at the same time, you always negotiated with a view to striking a deal – not just in order to put an end to regulatory uncertainty for the banks, but also so as not to impair the Basel process and the multilateral approach. You didn’t negotiate in a vacuum, but always had a keen eye for the ramifications.