Available at: https://www.creditsuisse.com/corporate/en/media/news/articles/media-releases/2012/07/en/42035.html 2  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  2  The Bank of England values diversity for three reasons. First, it is the right thing to do; a public institution should reflect the people it serves. Second, diversity can build the trust required to deliver our remits, as people are more likely to trust people they recognise, reducing misperceptions that we are experts making esoteric decisions in ivory towers for the benefit of others.5 Third, diversity leads to better decision-making, more creative thinking and reduces the risks of groupthink and bias.6 This last point is critical. Almost all decisions in finance are taken under uncertainty, making it especially important that decision makers are exposed to a range of views, and engage in open debates with people whose perspectives challenge the prevailing wisdom. Articulating why diversity and inclusion are important has helped the Bank move the dial. When I joined the Bank, only 17% of senior managers were women, so we set an ambitious target to reach 35% by 2020. The Bank is on track to achieve this: today, 32% of senior management are female, considerably above the 14% industry average. Our pipeline of future leaders also looks healthy: 46% of colleagues below senior management are women. This didn’t just happen. Reaching this point has required a deliberate, concentrated effort throughout the organisation. The power of organisations like the WIBF is that they help such approaches permeate through the industry.
Indeed, it will take only a few seconds to authenticate our currency notes. For example, to apply the simplest “Look” technique, what is needed is only for us to hold the currency notes against a light. This will allow us to verify simultaneously at least four important security features in all of our currency notes; the 3D Agong’s watermark, bright electrotype numeral, perfectly register see-through mark or windowed colour shifting security threads with texts. This technique is the easiest and the simplest manner as no special gadget is required. Coupled with a few other techniques contained in the My Ringgit apps we can make a firm conclusion on the authenticity of the currency notes. BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Similarly, our new coins are also sufficiently protected by unique security features. In the course of designing the coins, the Bank had engaged with various stakeholders to ensure that the new coins are not only practical but sufficiently protected as well. Each coin denomination is unique in term of size and security features to ensure no fake coins can pass through the coin authentication machines. As part of our financial education effort, Bank Negara today is launching a mobile application called My Ringgit. This application enables the general public to learn about the most practical and easiest techniques to authenticate our currencies and learn in greater detail the security features found in our currency notes.