Both forums involve attendees from a 9 10  Information on members of the RTGS/CHAPS Board can be found at https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/payment-and-settlement https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/financial-stability/financial-market-infrastructure-supervision 6  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  6  range of organisations to ensure input and challenge from a diverse range of stakeholders across the payments landscape, from the major, established banks through to innovative Fintechs and end-users. Looking ahead to RTGS Renewal This is an important time for the UK payments industry. In addition to the RTGS Renewal Programme, Pay.UK11 is working to build a New Payments Architecture for retail payments. There are synergies between these programmes and while we operate independently we are working closely to ensure that we co-ordinate where there are benefits to doing so, and where this will best support the payments industry. An example of our close cooperation is planning the introduction of messaging standards based on ISO 20022. The Bank and Pay.UK are working together on the introduction of a Common Credit Message (CCM) for CHAPS, Faster Payments Service (FPS) and Bacs. The Bank published a joint consultation with Pay.UK and the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) in June.12 This set out how we propose to develop the new messaging standards to create a harmonised language for retail and wholesale payments in the UK. We will shortly be publishing our response to that consultation, which will set out our next steps. We have also created the Standards Advisory Panel (SAP)13.
Experience has shown that the monetary policy passed this demanding trial with flying colours and no one should any longer doubt its value for the Icelandic economy. It works in Iceland just as it does everywhere else. The Central Bank responded to imminent inflationary pressure by raising its interest rates in 1998 and still further in 1999 and 2000. The interest rate increase served to reduce excess demand in the economy and the ISK exchange rate rose, thus slowing increases to the consumer price index (CPI) in an overheated economy. Early in 2000 the fluctuation bands for the króna were widened, in part because the previous limits were then felt to be restraining the rising exchange rate, which was regarded as necessary to counter inflationary pressure. The exchange rate peaked in the spring of 2000, when it was just over 12% higher than at present. Market expectations changed in the spring of 2000, and the exchange rate began a downward trend. There are no doubt various explanations as to why this occurred but probably the major factors were concern at a sizeable current account deficit and the resulting enormous need for foreign financing, together with Icelandic investments in foreign securities during that same year, not least by pension funds. The downward exchange rate slide lasted until late November 2001. Several times during the period from mid-2000 until well into 2001, the Central Bank intervened in the currency market in an attempt to prevent a further decrease in the exchange rate.