In terms of the range of tools that the central bank has, obviously the first and foremost is the overnight interest rate, which, as I mentioned in my comments, we have acted aggressively on. We have dropped it by 350 basis points over the course of just a little over a year. We're at 1%, which is an historically low interest rate, as you know.
In parallel with that, we've been providing exceptional liquidity to the financial sector. The reason we've been doing that is to keep the system functioning as best as possible. We do that in a variety of ways. Effectively, to minimize risk to the taxpayer, we do collateralized lending to institutions. They owe us money, so we have the credit of the institution, but we also have the protection of very high-quality collateral. We've over-collateralized the loan, if you will.
There's a broad range of facilities, and we've been expanding the range of facilities and the degree of interaction. Those facilities peaked in December at $41 billion. If you think about the bank coming into this crisis period, if you will, with a balance sheet of $50 billion or thereabouts, which was all held in government securities, we've shifted that. We've increased to about $75 billion the balance sheet as a whole, of which about $40 billion, at its peak, was outstanding to the financial sector directly to provide liquidity--to grease the wheels, if you will--and keep the system functioning. That has come off by about $5 billion, to about $35 billion right now, but we have made it very clear, and I'll make it clear again today, that we stand ready to provide exceptional liquidity, as long as conditions warrant, to keep the system working, to keep it functioning effectively.
Now, the second question you're asking me--