The credit institutions need only comply with the minimum reserve requirement on average within the reserve period. This contributes to the stabilisation of money market developments. A key element for the functioning of the operational framework has been the TARGET payment system. This payment system interlinks the 15 national real-time gross settlement systems and the ECB’s payment system, by providing a uniform platform for the processing of crossborder payments in real time. It has allowed a single interbank market interest rate across the euro area to prevail. Overall, the operational framework of the Eurosystem has proved efficient in providing liquidity to the banking system. This does not mean that this framework is rigid. On the contrary, it must adapt to the situation and evolution of the money market in the euro area. In this regard, the Eurosystem switched from a fixed to a variable rate tender for its refinancing operations on 8 June 2000. Let me make clear that this technical decision does not in any way modify the stance of the Eurosystem’s monetary policy, nor does it preclude renewed use of fixed rate tenders in the future. The sole aim of this  BIS Review 58/2000  2  changeover is to address the severe overbidding problem which developed in the context of the fixed rate tender procedure. Monetary and economic developments in the euro area Turning from theory to practice, I shall now consider current monetary and economic developments in the euro area.
In addition, inflation mostly affects social classes less able to protect themselves against changes in nominal prices, if only because the larger part of their financial assets is held in a current account with no or fixed interest. Moreover, as I mentioned earlier, inflation tends to discourage long-term saving, especially that directed towards pension funds. This prevents people from securing their savings for long-term purposes in a reliable way. In the long run this could affect the people’s sense of belonging to society. As John Stuart Mill once said, money (we might say price stability) is one of those instruments whose importance is only felt when put out of order. Over the last century, the European economies and societies have had sufficient experience of this to value the wisdom of this judgement. Times may, of course, have changed. You may think that this concern is now a bit old-fashioned. I would just say that monitoring and combating inflationary pressures is a permanent task. It is an essential feature of a market economy that it will generate inflationary or, less often, deflationary tensions from time to time. It is not because the river is regulated that the dam is useless! What about the other policy areas? How can they best contribute to sustaining high non-inflationary growth? Taking stock of the broad policy developments currently observed in the euro area might suggest that there is little to worry about.