The three institutions also get together at least monthly, in what we refer to as the 'tripartite Standing Committee', to exchange information and discuss current threats to financial stability. As you might expect, we have met more frequently in recent weeks. If the events of 11 September have had an important effect on monetary policy, they had huge potential implication for financial stability as well. In the immediate aftermath, a key priority was to make sure that markets had adequate liquidity to continue and settle their business. In addition to its extensive operations in the US market, the US Federal Reserve entered into swap arrangements with the ECB, the Bank of England and other central banks to ensure a continued supply of dollar liquidity in other key markets. And the main payment systems extended their opening hours in the US, enabling the huge daily volume of dollar payments to be made. I must say that I was particularly impressed by the speed with which most of the big firms affected in New York were able to switch their operations to their contingency sites. Some of those sites were in New Jersey, but others put increased volumes through their London offices. There are of course a number of lessons which firms based in the UK and elsewhere will want to take from the disaster. But, overall, I salute the US firms and the US authorities for their actions, achieved at a time which for many involved was one of acute personal anxiety.
However, for online card payment transactions, due to the necessary significant technical changes, both for payment service providers and merchants operating e-shops, However, the delayed application of security requirements for online card transactions should not adversely affect customers. During the transitional period, payment service providers should recover the value of all unauthorized card payment transactions on the Internet for which no indepth identification of the customer has been applied, and the BNB monitors compliance with this requirement. Although the pandemic has led to some delays in the implementation of migration plans, according to available data, we expect Bulgaria to successfully complete migration by the end of the year within the projected pan-European deadline. Along with the work on the implementation of the current legal framework, many efforts are focused on its further improvement with a view to the emergence of innovative market participants, new technologies, changing business models. In September, the European Commission published the Digital Finance Package, part of which is the “EU Strategy for Retail Payments” and the “Strategy for the Digitalisation of EU Financial Services". The aim of both strategies is to outline the medium-term guidelines and priorities for the development of digitalization in the financial sector. Central to the payment strategy is immediate payments, executed within seconds, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, called the “new rule” in the strategy. Bulgaria is not lagging behind these trends.