And so, as you battle against the incoming surge while you try to exit the MTR train (probably beneath a poster exhorting courtesy); as you are almost decapitated entering the lift by the person with his finger permanently on the doors-close button; as you are tripped over by the ubiquitous Hong Kong trolley being raced in and out of the pedestrian crowd; as your boss explains that, although vacation leave is of course an entitlement, it would be rather inconsiderate of you actually to take any; as the waiter throws you into a seat at Mr Wong's table, thrusts the napkin onto your lap and demands rather than enquires whether you'd like a drink - all before you've had a chance to explain that it is not in fact Mr Wong whom you have come to join; as the taxi appears deliberately to accelerate through the large puddle right by where you are standing; as your lunch guest spends the entire meal fiddling with his mobile phone, making it quite clear that he resents having been invited to a restaurant where he is not allowed actually to talk into it; as you discover that the dignitary who has agreed to propose the toast at your modest office-opening ceremony can in fact stay for only five minutes because he or she has to hasten along to your main competitor's gala dinner; if you are feeling increasingly stressed by all of this, just relax and console yourself that this is Hong Kong, and Hong Kong wouldn't be where it is if people had never been in a hurry to get on with things.
In this context, we felt it was vitally important to defuse these unfounded fears that were not only fragmenting the euro area’s financial markets, but also, in the longer term, threatening to undermine the effectiveness of our monetary policy. That is why we created the OMT which will consist of an ex ante unlimited intervention on the secondary market to acquire sovereign bonds for which we consider the risk premium applied by the markets is unjustifiably high. The OMT will therefore represent a massive and effective backstop to the unjustifiable increase in sovereign yields and will allow us to counter the fragmentation of the euro area’s markets and restore the proper transmission of our monetary policy. The use of this instrument will be subject to very strict conditions: States must have previously negotiated a programme with the ESM and must respect their commitments regarding fiscal consolidation, financial reforms and competitiveness. This should enable a return of confidence and stability, not just in the short and medium term thanks to our action, but also on a longer term basis. *** Today, the euro area is advancing with determination in the right direction. The Eurosystem’s monetary policy is a source of immediate confidence and stability. Its governments are making fiscal, structural, financial and institutional reforms that will ensure the future stability and growth of the euro area. Our determination is total and our efforts must be continued relentlessly. I thank you for your attention. 4  BIS central bankers’ speeches