Mr. Marco Buti:

As I indicated, one must be careful about pinpointing where responsibility lies. I am not here to take responsibility, I am here as a witness before the committee. At the time, as far as the banks were concerned, the focus was on a bank-by-bank basis and responsibility for this lay with national supervisors. The Commission did not have this responsibility; supervising the banks was not then, nor is it now, part of its institutional remit.