And, at the end of these remarks, I hope you will share your perspectives with me. After all, the primary purpose of my visit to China is to listen. Background on the Federal Reserve System Some of you may be familiar already with the Federal Reserve System and the New York Fed. For those of you who are not, I would like to provide some background. The central bank of the United States is known as the Federal Reserve System. There is, however, no single entity that goes by that name. The central bank comprises, instead, three key components: the Board of Governors, which is an independent government agency; twelve regional Federal Reserve Banks, which operate under the supervision of the Board of Governors; and the Federal Open Market Committee. The United States Congress ultimately oversees the 1/7  BIS central bankers' speeches  Federal Reserve System and its entities. You may be familiar with the names Janet Yellen, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan. Dr. Yellen is the chair of the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee. Her predecessors in those roles were Dr. Bernanke and Dr. Greenspan. You may also be familiar with the name Bill Dudley. He is the president and chief executive officer of the New York Fed—in other words, my boss. He visited China earlier this month.
BIS central bankers’ speeches  These inflationary pressures from the global economy are closely linked to the strong growth in Asia and other emerging markets, which is projected to continue for some time. This means we cannot simply regard them as one-off shocks which will fade away. And just as the MPC has adjusted to changes in global growth and inflation in the past, we need to be prepared to do so now – in a gradual and measured way. The argument that these recent developments in the global economy can be ignored by monetary policy because they emanate overseas is not consistent with the previous responses of the MPC to changes in the global growth and inflation climate. That includes the dramatic monetary policy relaxation in late 2008 and 2009 in response to the global recession triggered by the financial crisis. Issue 2: The role of sterling in UK monetary policy One obvious way in which a tightening in UK monetary policy might affect our exposure to imported inflationary pressures is through its impact on the value of the pound. And this is the second key area where I see my view diverging from the majority of MPC members at present. In my view, the external value of the pound is a key channel of UK monetary policy and I would have expected the policy that I have been advocating – of gradually raising interest rates – to exert some upward pressure on the value of sterling on the foreign exchanges.