In the process, they are systematically capturing the type of knowledge I used to gain from my daily interactions with customers in the bank branch. Some providers are leveraging this data to sell their customers non-bank products and services. This – and the desire to avoid regulation – reduces their incentive to integrate upstream to conventional banking. Traditional universal banking begins with the customer relationship – or what I used to have as a teller. This historic preserve of established financial institutions is now being opened up. Aggregators, making use of banks’ Application Programme Interfaces (APIs), are providing customers with ready access to price comparison and switching services. New pro-competition policies are reinforcing this competition. 3  Meanwhile so-called “robo advisors” are deploying algorithms to deliver affordable investment advice to retail customers. 3  The second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) will allow, conditional on FCA authorisation and customer authority, non-banks to access customers’ bank account data. In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority has required that the UK’s nine largest banks adopt an open banking standard for APIs by early 2018. 5  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  5  As customers become more willing to delegate decision-making to machines, their funds and loans are being better matched with the best rates from around the system. These flows could become seamless if public policy initiatives and new technologies combine to create digital credentials that are universal, durable and reliable.
Leszek Balcerowicz: The optimal timing and path for Poland’s entry into EMU Speech by Prof Leszek Balcerowicz, President of the National Bank of Poland, at the 11th European Banking Congress in Frankfurt, 23 November 2001. *  *  *  Thank you very much Mr Chairman, I welcome this opportunity to address such a distinguished audience. I would start with two basic assumptions. First, we are not discussing whether euro will go east or not because we are assuming Poland and other candidate countries will enter the European Union with the status of a country with derogation, so sooner or later they will be obliged to join the Monetary Union as well. Therefore, the issue under discussion is not “if” but “when” and “how” i.e. what are the optimal timing and the optimal path. Secondly, one should assume equal treatment of candidates and present EU member countries i.e. fulfilling the Maastrich Criteria, no less no more. There should be no additional criteria like, for example, a required level of financial deepening, as it would indicate an unequal treatment of candidate countries. Taking the second assumption of the entry into the EMU as granted, I would like to focus on the core issue, which is the question of optimal timing. My basic point is, that, firstly, early entry into the Monetary Union is possible and secondly, that it is preferable to the delayed one.