The need for a strategy to make payment systems safer The result of the developments I have just described is a world where markets are more volatile – and where there is more chance that extreme movements in one market will spill over into others. From a regulator’s point of view this volatility can be unnerving – so how can we cope?
A crucial element is ensuring that the infrastructure is sound. In the financial system the infrastructure is based on three main pillars: the financial institutions, the markets they trade in and, of most interest to this conference, the mechanisms to settle financial transactions in those markets, in other words the payment systems.