The British Museum holds a £ note from Henry Austen’s bank in Alton. The images of people on Bank of England banknotes are a recent addition. The monarch did not generally appear prior to 1960 and it was another decade until the first character – another great of English literature, William Shakespeare – was included. Even more unusually, the new £ joins the £ in being printed on polymer, rather than paper. Polymer marks a major innovation. It is cleaner, safer and stronger. Resistant to dirt, moisture and curry. This added strength means notes will remain in good condition for longer, with a lifespan at least two and a half times that of paper notes. When they do reach the end of their useful lives, polymer notes will be recycled. As a result, the costs of producing notes – both economic and environmental – are lower. 5 6  Mansfield Park (1814). http://libraryguides.goucher.edu/c.php?g=242484&p=1612598. 3  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  3  Importantly, the use of polymer also allows the Bank to bolster the security features in our banknotes. The new £ features see-through panels, coloured foils and detailed metallic images. The design of the new £ makes full use of polymer’s potential. It features a portrait of Jane Austen, taken from an engraving by William Home Lizars, commissioned in 1870 by her nephew and based on a watercolour sketch by her sister Cassandra.
I will then highlight the financial risks that go hand-in-hand with the changes underway (II). Finally, I would like to emphasise that a safe move towards a more diversified intermediation model as we see it developing cannot be achieved without further financial integration at European level. To that end, advancing the European regulatory agenda is of prime importance (III). 1. From  bank-centric  financial  intermediation  towards  unbundled  financial  intermediation in the digital era To date, in Europe, we have been accustomed to a bank-centric intermediation model. However, this model is being increasingly challenged by new players emerging in the digital era, the so-called Fintechs and Bigtechs, as well as by the growing weight of the asset management industry. We thus need to prepare to new intermediation models, which can be classified in four categories:  2/9  -  The traditional banking intermediation model for certain financial services, like mortgages;  -  A non-bank financial intermediation model (formerly known as “shadow banking”) performed by the asset management industry, to finance in particular the corporate sector;  -  A re-intermediated model, in which Fintechs and Bigtechs intermediate the banks, on the retail segment in particular;  -  And a fully disintermediated model supported by the blockchain and the peer-to-peer economies. Let me first discuss the new models stemming from the digital era (A) and I’ll come back afterwards to asset management (B).