In the opening speech at the Committee of Payment and Settlement Systems Conference, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa of the ECB said central banks need to co-operate with the private sector and particularly with the banks that are in business for profit, for the private interest, not - like us - for the public interest. In fact the central bank is part of the banking system. Indeed, when we speak of the banking system we speak of "a set of connected parts" of which the central bank is one, an essential