Reflections on Leadership in a Disruptive Age Speech given by Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England Regent’s University London Monday 19 February 2018  I am grateful to Jennifer Nemeth for her assistance in preparing these remarks. 1  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  I. Introduction  I was asked to reflect tonight on leadership and values. This is somewhat dangerous territory, and certainly one that creates a target-rich environment for critics who can spot gaps between preaching and practising. Indeed, a review of a recent book on leadership and values suggested that it’s very publication signalled overconfidence – the complacency before the storm – and cautioned that CEOs and investors ought to be wary of the ‘curse of authorship’. There are countless examples of pride coming before the fall in finance. Think of those who dubbed the period before the Global Financial Crisis the ‘Great Moderation’. Or the four most expensive words in the English language. 1  But, because we can learn from experience, and because leadership lies at the heart of Regent’s University’s mission- literally ‘Developing tomorrow’s global leaders’ - I will forge ahead. I will begin by reviewing the main activities of leaders and the core attributes of leadership. I will try to address what leadership is and isn’t and whether it’s inherent or can be developed. I will conclude with some perspectives on the challenges and opportunities you will face leading in our disruptive age. II.
Philipp Hildebrand: Lessons from the crisis for global financial market infrastructure Summary of a speech by Mr Philipp Hildebrand, Vice-Chairman of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the Zermatt Symposium, Avenir suisse, Zermatt, 25 August 2009. The complete speech can be found in German on the Swiss National Bank’s website (www.snb.ch). *  *  *  The financial market infrastructure, in other words, the systems for trading, clearing and settling payments and financial instruments, is essential for the operation of the financial system. Thus far in the financial crisis, financial market infrastructure has stood up well overall and helped to prevent the existing uncertainty in the financial system from becoming even greater. This holds true both for payment and settlement systems in Switzerland and for the global financial market infrastructure. However, time and again, it becomes apparent that the infrastructure for clearing and settling transactions is not keeping up with rapidly growing financial markets. In recent years, this has been most obvious in the OTC derivatives market. Pressured by supervisory authorities and central banks, market participants are now developing safer and more efficient clearing and settlement arrangements for OTC derivatives. These efforts include the establishment of central counterparties, which facilitate market participants’ risk management, promote market transparency and reduce the complexity of the financial system. To the extent that the market infrastructure reduces the interconnections between individual financial institutions, it contributes to the long-term strategy aimed at finding ways of liquidating large and complex financial institutions in an orderly way.