The story of monetary policy in Britain during the intervening period is told by the Mais Lectures. The first Mais Lecture was delivered by my predecessor, Lord Richardson, in 1978, at a point when monetary policy was emerging as the main tool to deal with inflation. Not before time, you might think, since only two years earlier inflation had reached 27%. In 1981 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Geoffrey Howe, chose as the title of his Mais Lecture: “The Fight Against Inflation”. As he said then, with inflation still in double figures, "squeezing inflation out from an economy which has become accustomed to higher rates over a period of years cannot be an easy or painless task. … the inflationary mentality must be eradicated. … When we have done that we will find that low inflation or even price stability need not be painful". The conquest of inflation was to prove harder than expected. In the decade that followed Geoffrey Howe’s lecture, inflation averaged over 7% a year. Only since 1992 has inflation fallen to levels that could be described as price stability. In retrospect, two Mais Lectures seem to have been of particular significance: those by Nigel Lawson in 1984 and by Tony Blair, then Leader of the Opposition, ten years ago this month. Despite clear differences of view, what stand out from those two lectures are their similarities. Both emphasised the need for a medium-term framework for monetary and fiscal policy.
These currencies might seem insignificant, but they have already been used as means of payment outside their own platforms. A number of private digital currencies have also appeared. Some have gained ground in terms of turnover and use, while others were introduced for purely fraudulent purposes and have rapidly disappeared. The largest and best-known digital currency is Bitcoin, which was launched in 2009. Bitcoin has been the subject of widespread debate, but still has only a minor role in the payment system. Payment by Bitcoin is costly, and the system’s capacity is limited. Bitcoin prices have been highly volatile. A characteristic of private currencies such as bitcoin is the absence of any central institution backing the currency. But this is also a problem, making it difficult to establish the trust necessary for a widespread adoption of these currencies. Cybercrime New technology and new forms of payment are raising fundamental questions related to the security of the payment system. Cybercrime is evolving rapidly, with cyberattacks becoming increasingly advanced and well-organised. 5/9  BIS central bankers' speeches  Central banks are also targeted. In February last year, an attempt was made to steal USD 950 million from the central bank of Bangladesh. Most of the payments were stopped, but in the course of 48 hours, USD 81 million had found its way to a bank in the Philippines. A few days later, more than USD 60 million had disappeared through Philippine casinos. As far as I know, the money trail stopped there.