We are also seeking to develop a renewed service that will be message network agnostic: capable of sending and receiving payment messages from multiple sources and interfacing with multiple messaging networks without compromising on levels of security or proof. And we will continue to support the resilience of the renewed RTGS by diversifying operations across two sites with a third stand-by settlement platform which is geographically remote. As I stressed at the start, the Bank needs to reflect the diversity of the people it serves and so increasing the diversity of the Bank’s workforce is at the top of our agenda. We have set ourselves stretching but 12  https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/payments/rtgs-renewal-proof-of-concept.pdf 6  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  6  achievable targets in respect of increasing the representation of women and BAME colleagues at all levels of the business.13 And we have implemented a wide range of initiatives designed to improve diversity in our recruitment, development and retention of talent across a range of protected characteristics. As a member of the Bank’s senior leadership team, I have personal accountability for delivering a step change in the Bank’s diversity. This is crucial in my own Directorate but also for the Bank as a whole.
Developments in technology, both to enhance resilience of existing payments and to innovate in new forms of payments, are important to support the Bank in advancing its objectives. This is equally true for physical and electronic payments. In my previous role as Chief Cashier, I led our work to issue banknotes printed on polymer. We harnessed innovative technology both in the security features selected, and in introducing a tactile feature on the new £ polymer banknote to help blind and vision impaired people identify our notes. This meant we exploited technology to produce banknotes which are not only secure, but inclusive. And now we are assessing how we can embrace diverse technologies through RTGS Renewal. Although the Bank has concluded that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is not yet sufficiently mature to provide the core for the next generation of RTGS, we still place a high priority on ensuring the new service is capable of interfacing with DLT. In summer 2018 we ran a Proof of Concept12 with four firms to develop payment arrangements using innovative technologies. Importantly, the results demonstrated that participants using such technologies could connect to and settle in RTGS. This has informed our thinking on how RTGS could support settlement in a more diverse range of systems, and provided broader insight into the range of functionality the Bank might need to offer to support this sector.