In this particular case, we may find that no single player feels incentivised or powerful enough to develop a standard that others will coalesce around, in sufficient numbers such that the benefits outweigh the costs of development. The resulting lack of commonly adopted data standards is not a new phenomenon, or one that is at all unique to the UK financial system. But it is in greater focus for regulators now, in the UK and elsewhere, because of the increased amount of data that we need to collect, its increased complexity, and the increased demands we want to make of that data. The potential for market failure here means there can be a role for the public sector. Again, the LEI gives us a clear example of this role. Prior to the financial crisis, the private sector had tried and failed for 20 years to create a universal, global standard to identify legal entities. It took the intervention of US and international financial authorities for the identifier to become a reality. Our Transformation Plan sets out our approach to move this agenda forward9. We are convening and coordinating an industry group that will look in depth at the development and adoption of data standards. We will help set the agenda for the group by giving our views about the use cases, like CRE, that interest us most. Our data collections themselves can be one useful tool for promoting the development and adoption of standards.
The first years of our democracy were marked by economic difficulties, partly resulting from the international crises linked to sharp oil price increases and the lack of an anchor for inflation expectations in most developed countries. Nevertheless, this new Spain, democratic and integrated into Europe, never stopped looking outwards. Trade and financial flows and the movement of capital increased, and exports and imports rose from accounting for roughly 35% of GDP in 1986 to 66% in 2017. These steps towards modernisation would never have been possible without a society that was convinced of the fact that Europe represented prosperity and the future. The pro-European nature of civil society united Spaniards more strongly than their ideologies or political affiliations, and this sentiment has held firm despite the difficulties people experienced during the financial crisis. A recent survey by the Elcano Royal Institute shows that eight out of ten Spaniards believe that opening up markets provides Spanish businesses with good opportunities2. This is resounding proof that Spain benefits from the European Union in general, and the Economic and Monetary Union created by the euro area in particular. The annual growth in per capita income between 1977 and 1985, one year before Spain joined the EU, was 0.7%, well below the 1.8% enjoyed by the countries that would go on to form the euro area. However, between 1986 and 1998, before the euro was introduced, Spain’s per capita income grew at an extraordinary annual rate of 2.7%, above the average for future euro area countries of 2.1%.