Coming to an innovative, cooperative and reciprocal agreement on central clearing would promote competitive financing in the euro area and maintain the resilience of the UK and global financial systems. More fundamentally, it would be an early milestone in the broader rebalancing of the UK, European and global economies. And it would produce far superior outcomes to other elements of the Commission’s proposals, which would fragment global clearing activity and raise costs and risks. V. Conclusion My Lord Mayor, this building, with all its majesty and history and this topic, central clearing of derivatives; could not appear farther from the concerns of people in this country. But they are much more closely related than they appear. A decade of radical financial reform was not an end in itself, but rather a means to serve households and businesses better. We must ensure that the real economy reaps its full benefits, including through freer trade in services and more resilient financing of the investment needed to boost wages of workers in all industries across the UK. One million people across this country work in financial services. The industry contributes 7% of output and pays taxes that cover almost two thirds of the cost of the NHS. At a time when the UK is running a 5% current account deficit, financial services runs a 1.5% trade surplus with Europe alone. The entire service sector runs a 5% surplus with the world and employs 85% of UK workers. We could take these realities for granted.
Therefore we do see the promotion of digital financial inclusion becoming one of the main priorities on a global level. For instance, the G-20 Global Partnership for financial inclusion in late 2020 has set the digital financial inclusion as one of the main priorities in its financial inclusion action plan stressing financial education and consumer protection complemented with regulation as key factors in protecting and empowering the most vulnerable groups. Therefore, we are very grateful that the INFE OECD and the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands accepted our request for workshop on digital financial services and financial education. Bearing in mind the importance of financial education in a dynamic and innovative financial 2/3  BIS central bankers' speeches  system, there is unquestioned need for an innovative and systemic approach based on our Strategy for Financial Education and Financial Inclusion. In general, the central banks together with other financial regulatory authorities play the leading role. The last survey on financial literacy of adults in South East Europe done by OECD (2020) revealed that the National Bank of the Republic of North Macedonia is the most trusted among central banks in the region as provider of financial education. However, the active participation of other stakeholders from the private and civil sector is more that welcome to achieve this mission. Last but not least, as socially responsible institutions, we have a mutual obligation to work together closely and constructively and to exploit available synergies for the benefits of the overall population and society.