4  E. Gerald Corrigan, Are Banks Special?, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Annual Report, January 1983. Cf. Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Law of Bailments § 464 (1832). (“The soundness of the public policy of subjecting particular classes of persons to extraordinary responsibility, in cases where an extraordinary confidence is necessarily reposed in them, and there is an extraordinary temptation to fraud, or danger of plunder, can hardly admit of question; and has been recognized in the jurisprudence of many countries.”). BIS central bankers’ speeches  1  Industry responsibility Two years ago, I noted that recent scandals in banking evidenced “deep-seated cultural and ethical failures.” 5 Many of the industry’s leaders now agree. According to the Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve System, a group composed of senior representatives from the industry, “as often as not [...] the challenges faced in recent years have been behavioral and cultural; post-crisis episodes such as LIBOR and foreign exchange manipulation provide hard evidence that there remains work to be done.” 6 Last year I argued that “the solution [to cultural problems] needs to originate from within the firms, from their leaders.” 7 I view today’s workshop as a progress report on the industry’s efforts. This is an opportunity for us to discuss collectively what is working, what is not, and the next steps that are needed. We should take care, though, not to confuse cause and effect. The banking scandals that followed the financial crisis are evidence that something fundamental is wrong.

Available at: https://www.creditsuisse.com/corporate/en/media/news/articles/media-releases/2012/07/en/42035.html 2  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/news/speeches  2  The Bank of England values diversity for three reasons. First, it is the right thing to do; a public institution should reflect the people it serves. Second, diversity can build the trust required to deliver our remits, as people are more likely to trust people they recognise, reducing misperceptions that we are experts making esoteric decisions in ivory towers for the benefit of others.5 Third, diversity leads to better decision-making, more creative thinking and reduces the risks of groupthink and bias.6 This last point is critical. Almost all decisions in finance are taken under uncertainty, making it especially important that decision makers are exposed to a range of views, and engage in open debates with people whose perspectives challenge the prevailing wisdom. Articulating why diversity and inclusion are important has helped the Bank move the dial. When I joined the Bank, only 17% of senior managers were women, so we set an ambitious target to reach 35% by 2020. The Bank is on track to achieve this: today, 32% of senior management are female, considerably above the 14% industry average. Our pipeline of future leaders also looks healthy: 46% of colleagues below senior management are women. This didn’t just happen. Reaching this point has required a deliberate, concentrated effort throughout the organisation. The power of organisations like the WIBF is that they help such approaches permeate through the industry.