If incumbents depend on Bigtechs for key infrastructure such as cloud computing, if they rely on the same Bigtech to distribute their products through their platforms and then compete with Bigtechs on certain segments, they will see their strategic independence challenged in the same way as hotels and retailers did. This process of commoditisation of incumbents may lower credit standards to compensate for higher pressure on margins and exacerbate their funding gap because of lower customer stickiness. Second, the development of cyber-risk. With greater interconnections between technologies and the financial system and the opening up of information systems, the Banque de France observed in its Financial Stability Report of December 2017 that cyber-risk is moving from an idiosyncratic risk to a potential source of systemic risk which needs to be addressed. This perspective is widely shared among public and private decision makers and it should not come as a surprise that cyber-security will be one of the priorities of the French presidency of the G7 this year. So, to conclude my second point, the completion of the regulatory decade to strengthen banking financial intermediation is not the end of the story; it’s just the end of the beginning of a new era. The transformation of financial intermediation is full of opportunities but it also highlights the limitations of sectoral and entity-based regulations and the need to adapt regulation and supervision to a morphing financial intermediation. This leads me to my last point. 3.
And unemployment is close to its lowest level for a quarter of a century. In my opinion, that has not happened by chance, but is the result of a range of policies. Achieving low and stable inflation is the best contribution that monetary policy can make to the wider economic goals of sustainable growth and employment. Having an inflation target certainly does not mean that we take no interest in real  BIS Review 87/2001  1  activity. We have discretion over how rapidly we try to bring inflation back to target when and if it diverges from 2½%. And we regularly publish our best guess about the likely future path of growth up to a two year horizon. But the aim of policy is clear - we do what is necessary to keep inflation on target. So far, I have spoken as if monetary policy is carried out by faceless bureaucrats hidden deep within the vaults of Threadneedle Street. Of course, as any of you who read the Diary columns regularly will know, nothing could be further from the truth! There are nine of us on the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, and we meet once a month to make our interest rate decision. This is a rigorous process, and rightly so. The first stage occurs on the Friday before the policy meeting, with a briefing by Bank staff on all of the data that have been released over the previous month.