Our regular press conferences where we inform you and the general public about current economic and financial conditions, as well as about our expectations, as you know, are based entirely on data. It is not always possible to put a detailed analytical focus on everything that is available and which we produce as data. But that’s why we live in the “era of Internet statistics". Let’s take for example the interest rate statistics available on our website. If analyzed in details, its granularity is very high, offering a great deal of information on the amount of interest on different types of deposit and credit products, which can be helpful for all of us to make a 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  personal financial decision based on information. As one of the bearers of our statistical system, we also observe the public’s need for new categories of statistical data and within our competencies we try to respond to that need. Among other things, we have introduced new data on payment card transactions, the monitoring of which will be discussed today. Over the past years, aware that traditional forms of data display are no longer the most appropriate way of disseminating data, with the support of the European Union we have created a modern statistical web portal “NBStat". According to multiple analyzes conducted in the central banking community, advanced web-based statistical web portals are the most upto-date statistical tool that disseminates data in the simplest, fastest and most detailed way.
Jean-Pierre Roth: Steps to strengthen the Swiss financial system Introductory remarks by Mr Jean-Pierre Roth, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, at the news conference, Bern, 16 October 2008. *  *  *  Pursuant to art. 5 of the Swiss National Bank Act (NBA), the SNB shall contribute to the development of our economy and the proper functioning of our monetary system. This is why the SNB has decided to extend a loan not exceeding USD 54 billion to the special purpose vehicle (SPV) set up to take over illiquid assets currently held by UBS. A similar offer has also been extended to the CS Group, which has refrained from making use of such a possibility. For the SNB, this operation is highly unusual, both with regard to its scope and the reasons for it. Scope of operation As to the scope of the operation, USD 54 billion is clearly a substantial amount for the National Bank. I would like to emphasise, however, that the loan amount is entirely guaranteed by the portfolio assigned by UBS, i.e. securities valued at USD 60 billion in the UBS balance sheet. Given the fact that in the past twelve months, UBS has made aggressive write-downs on its risky positions and that its portfolio is fairly diversified (it does not only consist of toxic assets), we feel that the risk of further losses on this portfolio is limited.