*********************** We look to history when we chose a new character, but money has a future not just a past. The selection of the new £ note character is not my only announcement today… because as I alluded to earlier, money is evolving. Today, it is much more than polymer. While cash remains invaluable to many, it is now the second most frequent transaction method after debit card payments.1 And innovation is expected to make other electronic forms of payment easier to make and faster to settle. The technological revolution in finance will bring more tailored products, keener pricing, and more diverse sources of credit for households and SMEs. The Bank is embracing fintech and ensuring that it develops in ways that maximise the opportunities and minimise the risks for society. We aim to enable, empower and ensure. 1  Cash transactions made up 37% of all transactions in 2017. 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  4  Enable new technology by developing the right environment for fintech to thrive, such as by upgrading the Bank’s hard infrastructure on which finance relies – such as our large value payments system, RTGS. The Bank is one of the first to allow non-bank payment service providers to directly access its system, something that is lowering the costs of payments across borders. Enabling also means having the right soft infrastructure, such as rules and regulations, to help fintech thrive.
We very much value the skills and diversity they bring to our efforts, so in a short recruitment pitch, when you ‘Think Science’, think too of central banking. After all, science starts with curiosity and asking the right questions. Science teaches people to conduct dedicated research and disciplined analysis. These skills and talents make a good supervisor, policymaker or senior leader, and they are the reason that the Bank increasingly recruits from beyond the field of economics. Not least because scientific advances in Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are reshaping our world, transforming the nature of both work and commerce. This revolution will impact all aspects of the Bank’s work, from the future of work, through its effects on employment, productivity and wages, to the future of finance, as the nature of customer service, trading and risk management transforms. These advances in science and technology are also transforming our focus today – money. They are making digital money more like its physical counterpart – instant, anonymous and direct. And scientific advances are modernising physical currency, cash, which still has a hugely important role in society. We use a host of technologies to protect our physical banknotes against counterfeiting. The switch to polymer has allowed us to introduce new security features, including see-through panels, coloured foils and detailed metallic images. Polymer also makes our banknotes stronger, with a lifespan two and a half times that of paper notes, and greener, because they will be recycled when they reach the end of their useful lives.