For both households and businesses, making financial plans was a very risky exercise. The transition from an inflation-prone world was not an easy one. Central banks needed to break inflation psychology by raising interest rates dramatically during 1979–81. In 1981, when I arrived at the Bank, the average posted rate for a five-year mortgage in Canada peaked at over 20 per cent.
But, at the same time, business model pressures require quicker, more automated, more accessible systems, which in turn increase the probability and impact of resilience and security issues crystallising. Mitigating this risk requires incurring costs. It also requires effective, agile governance, robust risk management and control frameworks, and strong detection and crisis response mechanisms.