Andrew, it has been an absolute pleasure to serve as one of your guerrillas, and I very much look forward to working hand in glove with you in our new roles. For the 1,580 banks, building societies, credit unions, insurers and major investment firms we supervise, 1  there is a simple message about my approach to the role of running the PRA . That approach is: more of the same. That means supervision which is firm but fair, using all of the latest analytical tools and techniques, together with a healthy dose of common sense. My job is to serve the public interest by focusing on the objectives given to us by Parliament: promote safety and soundness, protect insurance policyholders, and – secondary to both – facilitate effective competition. These three objectives form a complete and coherent whole and I am absolutely committed to them. But they are easier said than delivered. So I am very proud of the effort my 1,325 colleagues at the PRA put in 2  every day in pursuit of them, steadily implementing the post-crisis reforms . But as I shall explain: the end of one chapter is the start of another. Firms need to renew their business models for the new world. A mixed economy  I think that the approach we have adopted for the PRA is the right one, but I am not starry-eyed about the system we are operating. 1 2  Firm total correct as at 19 October 2016.
3  Individual Capital Adequacy Standards 4  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/default.aspx  4  Of course, there is important work to finish off in Basel, and constant evolution will be necessary as firms and financial markets themselves evolve. No regime is or ever will be perfect, but I think the one we are settling on is a massive improvement on the old one. Long live the revolution! But standards can’t just stand there. To bear down on risks to financial stability, they have to be implemented. Here there is still a lot of work to do, particularly on the banking side. Banks have already made big strides in building up their levels of going concern capital, and we are close to finalising the Basel III global standard. In some other areas, implementation is only very recent. For example, with respect to accountability, we now have a robust but proportionate framework to prevent the ‘recycling’ of individuals with poor conduct records across PRA-regulated firms. We are also making sure that buy-outs of variable remuneration do not allow bank employees to avoid the proper consequences of their actions. All that helps make sure that what was originally intended is efficiently and coherently implemented. Implementation will often pass the public by. That’s OK – so long as households and businesses get a resilient and reliable service from the financial system. Ring-fencing, however, will not go unnoticed.