As we proceeded on the path of negative interest rates on our deposit facility, it was also clear we had to look at the impact on the profitability of the banks. Banks are very important for the monetary transmission mechanism, so you have to look at what is the impact of the package on the banking sector.
Let me cite a million reasons why: •  113 member institutions as of end-2014 represent an ATM cardholder base of over 73 million. By March this year, the number had increased to nearly 78 million cardholders. •  The high volume of switched transactions reached almost 500 million in 2014 or an average of 1.36 million transactions per day.