The alternative business model for banking is to retreat from the street, but to seek new ways to nurture generalised, or anonymous, trust on the part of the public. Technology may be a great enabler here, allowing a customised and personalised service even if it is not a person actually delivering it. Indeed, it is striking that it is often technology companies that are towards the top of the industry trust league table. I am a long-standing supporter of alternative business models for banking, ones which connect end-savers and end-borrowers directly, peer-to-peer. Their offering to consumers is often a different one, challenging both the product and the pricing of incumbents. It is disruptive innovation. Many of these challengers are growing fast and have high levels of customer satisfaction. Innovation never occurs in a straight line, nor without bumps, but these new entrants bring welcome diversity to the banking market. Whatever business model is adopted, success will hinge on whether the public have faith in banks pursuing a purpose aligned with their needs, that they are fulfilling their fiduciary function. There is a mountain to climb on this front, not just for banking but for business generally. If not at an all-time low, public trust in big business is plumbing the depths. And the chorus of criticism of business is not confined to the general public. It is shared by politicians, academics, investors and indeed sometimes by companies themselves.
They occupy a position in the top right hand corner, with levels of complexity higher-even than commercial bank annual reports. This suggests the vast majority of the Bank’s publications may be inaccessible to the vast majority of the general public. Having assessed my own speeches, including this one, the conclusion is much the same. They, too, are likely to be impenetrable to most. These linguistic issues are not merely matters of careful drafting. They are important at a substantive level when it comes to building social capital, accreting generalised trust, closing the Great Divide. Plainly, there is further still for us all to go, myself very much included, in simplifying our communications to enable us to speak clearly to those we serve. Set-piece communications, in the form of written reports and speeches, are only one aspect. There are different methods and media which can be used to reach different audiences using different voices. Last year’s Open Forum was an example of such an initiative. 64 The Bank’s  63  Results from a poll conducted by Populus for the Bank of England in March 2016 of around 2,000 adults. 64  For further details, please see Bank of England Open Forum (2015). BIS central bankers’ speeches  15  enhanced public understanding programme is another. A third would be to seek different means of engaging more directly with the general public around the country.