This is to say that crises can happen in any economy, whether it is large or small, developed or emerging, with or without a sophisticated financial system, and regardless of whether the country has a fixed or flexible exchange rate system. And once a crisis happens, the impact will be large because of the globalized nature of markets that drives the spillover and contagion. For emerging markets, this means that the risk of future crises is wide-ranging and can be both internally and externally induced. The externally-induced crisis can either be because of imprudent policy choices elsewhere or because of failures of systemically important markets or institutions. And we have seen in the current crisis, the impact from an externally-induced crisis through contagion can be as, or even more severe, as an internally-induced or a home-grown crisis. BIS Review 36/2010  1  Therefore, to lessen the risk of future crises, prudent and good policy choices must be made in all countries. If not, the chance of crises repeating will remain high in this globalized world because of the interdependence between economies in policies, and because of the interconnectedness of countries in trade and financial flows. The second lesson is that, while monetary policy must remain focused on maintaining low and stable inflation environment, which is crucial for sustainable growth, it is clear from the current crisis that low and stable inflation alone is not sufficient for ensuring financial stability.
In this way, it was possible to retain overall liquidity in the bank system at an appropriate level. As you will see in graph 3, the average level of bank sight deposits changed very little throughout the year, if we compare each minimum reserve period with the next. Our other operational processes have also stood up well in the turmoil of the past few months. Payment transactions carried out between banks in the SIC system ran smoothly at all times, although banks have made greater use of SNB intraday loan facilities. In order to bridge liquidity bottlenecks at the end of the day, the National Bank provides a liquidityshortage financing facility to banks. This allows them to obtain liquidity on a temporary basis 2  BIS Review 150/2007  when needed, provided they have a limit with the SNB and provided this limit is continually covered with eligible securities. The continual coverage of the limits ensures that the banks have access to a liquidity cushion, even in critical situations. Actual use of the limits is generally restrained, and this has also been the case in recent months. Lessons learnt I would like to draw your attention to some of the lessons that we have already learnt from the current crisis. I will mention four points. First, the worldwide money market upheaval clearly shows how highly integrated international financial markets are today. Local crises can spread around the globe in a flash. The money market crisis is unlikely to have been overcome yet.