1/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  But, we do not for a moment believe that we can maintain the arrangements we have without change. As the world around us changes, so too do we have to adapt how we achieve these public goods. Also, we do not participate in these global institutions with the intention to water them down, misguidedly because we think this would preserve some notion of our competitiveness as a nation. The UK could not be a global financial centre for long if we did. Let me reiterate again, the public goods of open economies, an open financial system and the stability of that system are global, not regional, in nature. The UK is one of the world’s largest global financial centres, and its financial stability – as the IMF have reminded us – is therefore a global public good. We are deeply committed to financial stability and given that the success of our financial centre. That is not because we are mercantilist in our outlook. As the City’s long history shows, that has never been the outlook of people in the City; rather it has been to trade freely and compete and grow new markets, to face outwards. We see that today for instance in the embrace of fintech. The UK’s financial markets and its financial system are therefore open for trade to all who will abide by our laws and act consistent with our public policy objectives.
There may also be reason to make changes that span both life and non life, but that is not the point I want to emphasise here. Let me be clear, none of this means that the UK should or will create a low regulation, high risk, anything goes financial centre and system. We have an overwhelming body of evidence that such an approach is not in our own interests, let alone anyone else’s. That said, I believe we have a very bright future competing in global financial markets underpinned by strong and effective common global regulatory standards. I want to finish with one further important area, that is, how the rules are applied – supervision as we call it – and how we can be sure that this application of rules is effective across borders, and particularly between the UK and the EU. It is of course critical that rules are applied effectively, and that there is co-operation between the authorities in different countries. With this in mind, we already have 36 MoUs agreed between the Bank of England / PRA and supervisors across Europe. They ensure supervisory co-operation will be deeply engrained in the relationship. And let me welcome the content of the joint declaration on financial services that was contained in the UK-EU trade agreement.