mr president i would say to you and to mr jouyet and mr almunia that it is absolutely essential that the interbank market is restarted
the only sure way to achieve this is to have sovereign state guarantees for wholesale interbank deposits as indeed ireland and denmark have done in their domestic markets
admittedly the contingent liability is enormous however when the interbank market restarts the banks will stop hoarding they will start lending again to businesses and individuals and householders interbank rates will return to normal levels and it is an absolute certainty that those guarantees will not need to be used
i agree with mr jouyet that this has to be done on a global basis
it is the proper role of the imf as he said to coordinate this action and only with such a bold move on a global basis will we put out the fire and start to rekindle confidence
