In this interview, Yves Mersch, former official at the Luxembourg Finance Ministry responsible for international relations and cooperation with international financial organisations, Director of the Treasury from 1989 to 1998 and Governor of the Banque Centrale du Luxembourg since 1998, describes how Pierre Werner, Luxembourg Prime Minister and Minister of State from 1959 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1984, attributed a great deal of importance to the monetary phenomenon in the light of the increased financialisation of the economy, and considered it vital for the European Community to adopt a common monetary policy.