Mr. Brian Cowen:

And the IMF were checking with the people who fund them as to whether they were in favour of this or not. And it was very clear, as I said, from the US point of view, from Mr. Geithner's point of view, since they hadn't burnt a bondholder from ... since Lehman's themselves, they were also concerned and ... and the ECB, I think, were concerned too about what would happen if there was, from a European perspective, if there was burning of bondholders. What impact would that have on other countries who were lining up to be possibly programme entrants? What impact would that have on access to the bond market? And, therefore, they steered well away from it.