Mr. Aidan Carrigan:

I think Deputy Boyd Barrett was confusing a couple of the points we were making about the United States market. The US market is different. It does not rely on banks as much. That was one point.

A lot of the funds we have though the constant net asset value structure are US-sourced, but those are US funds now being invested in Europe, and it is separate. They provide liquidity to our banks here.

It is a separate point but it is important to have that liquidity to feed into the European economy, and we are keen to protect that.

There is one assurance I wish to give generally. The committee can be assured that we will not be negotiating any solution at a European level which puts at risk the developments in the financial markets or which undermines in any way financial stability. We are driven, as part of a system in Europe, to come up with a better way to regulate banking - the committee can see this through the banking union - and, through the shadow banking sector, to look at money market funds. It is about securing better regulation for European financial services.