Fact three is that the productivity gap between the top- and bottom-performing companies is materially larger in the UK than in France, Germany or the US. In the services sector, the gap between the top- and bottom7  performing 10% of companies is 80% larger in the UK than in our international competitors (Chart 5). This productivity gap has also widened by far more since the crisis – around 2-3 times more – in the UK than elsewhere (Chart 6). 8  This third gap is interesting, in part, because it is striking and less well-known. But, more fundamentally, it is interesting because it can help in explaining the first two gaps. A long and lengthening tail of stationary companies explains why the UK has a one third productivity gap with its international competitors. And that same tail is also an important reason why the UK has a one fifth productivity gap relative to the past. To mix metaphors for a moment, the UK is in many respects a tale (tail) of two companies: a small set in the upper tail gazelling along the productivity high road and a much larger set in the lower tail snailing along the 5  For example, Tenreyro (2018), Swinney (2018), Remes et al (2018). An alternative strand of the literature considers the role of market power, for example De Loecker and Eeckhout (2017). There is also a strand that debates mismeasurement of GDP and productivity, for example, Mokyr (2014). 6 For example, Brennan, Haldane and Madouros (2010).
The changes happening in the technologies around money will have an impact on the business model of the retail banking system that has deposit accounts at its core and that has hitherto dominated the payment and settlement machinery. It is certainly not our job to protect or preserve any particular business model for the provision of financial services. But the banking system, operating within the framework of the Bank of England monetary policy to govern the unit of account and under the regulation and supervision of the Bank and the FCA, is at the centre of the creation and of the use of the majority of our money as a means of payment and as a store of value. 16  Over 90% of customers described themselves as satisfied with their bank according to a survey by GfK NOP commissioned by the Competition and Markets Authority for its investigation into the personal current account sector. 17 The unit is a joint initiative by the PRA and FCA to provide information and support for those thinking of setting up a new bank in the UK: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/prudential-regulation/new-bank-start-up-unit 11  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  11  Given this role of the banking system in our economy, we have to ensure that the banks and the system as a whole are robust and have the resilience to withstand very severe risks. Our framework of regulation and our annual stress test of the banking system is designed to give this assurance.