Mr. William Beausang:

No, I mean, the sense was reflecting two factors, reflecting the fact that there was, as you can imagine, a huge level of confidentiality and secrecy around these issues, so that would be a major concern that if we, outside of the, kind of, Central Bank confidentiality, if information leaked out, that we were ... that our banks were under significant funding pressures, that, you know, calls would go out to banks and other institutions in other jurisdictions, and that would intensify our difficulties. So there was a high degree of sensitivity and secrecy around our own work. But more than that, I mean, there was a strong sense, and this probably reflected the work that had been done at EU level up to then, in looking at the issues that would arise if there was a failure in a cross-border financial institution, that there was a major ... I mean, all of the crisis management done at EU level related to this issue of, "Well, what about if a major European cross-border bank got into difficulties", and what arrangements would need to be put in place for what they used to, what was referred to, and what I'm sure is still referred to as "burden-sharing", where governments in different member states where that bank operated would get involved in resolving that, those issues. So that was the focus of work at, kind of, in the, sort of, the EFC, that is the economic and financial committee, and the FSC, two high level European committees. There was no sense of there, I mean, that was as far as that, there was a sense of any kind of EU response to difficulties in any particular member state, and that would arise if you were talking about a cross-border bank. And it's interesting to make the point that, I mean, those kind of, that work stream I won't say broke down, but where it really got into difficulties was getting to a point with member states where there was any sense the member states were willing to agree, kind of, burden-sharing arrangements. That was a step too far for most member states at that time.