In the interval between a meeting and the publication of the minutes, members have to refrain from commenting on what happened at the meeting and may not express an opinion that differs from the majority view of the forward-looking monetary policy. That is why we made it clear from the start that we aimed to shorten this interval, as we have now begun to do. My impression is that this system has worked quite well. There are no indications that the market as a whole misinterprets the Riksbank more than before. What we do see is a greater personification of the monetary policy debate; but that was predictable. It tallies with the media tendency, particularly in broadcasting, to dramatise events by presenting conflicting opinions. Today, different points of view can be clearly attached to particular individuals. One feature of this discussion is the classification of Board members as doves or hawks. It so happens that when I joined the Riksbank, one of the largest business journals actually described me as a dove-hawk (the literal translation of the Swedish for goshawk). I wonder whether the writer was aware that the goshawk is the most murderous of all the hawks and preys mostly on doves. With a central bank that clearly targets inflation, however, this way of classifying board members is not particularly apt. A member who consistently strives for an unduly low interest rate will find, if he or she gets their way, that sooner or later the inflation target is exceeded.
I also hope that the European Commission will soon formulate its view on interchange fees, so that uncertainties in this field are removed. Before I conclude, I would like to concentrate on an important additional issue: innovation. Innovation As I stressed at the beginning of my speech, SEPA is all about harmonisation, modernisation and innovation. The SEPA project has come a long way, but the process is far from being completed. More modernisation and innovation is needed. The information and communication technology is continuously evolving and we cannot lean back and watch. SEPA must evolve, and the SEPA products should be complemented with value-added services allowing customers to make payments, fast, easy and secure and, most importantly, as much as possible paper-free. I am here talking about initiation and confirmation services. Combining these services with the SEPA payments will make the payment process fully electronic. End-users will spend less time on payments – and less time also means less money! We refer to this perspective as the next stage of the SEPA project: eSEPA. eSEPA promises significant financial benefits for banks and customers via: •  Cost savings  •  Added revenue  •  Customer retention through value-added differentiation. Let me quickly run through three examples: 1. SEPA online payments  The European Payments Council (EPC) has worked on a project that enables online merchants to offer their customers a convenient, well-know payment solution.