At the same time, it gives due consideration to the unique situation which will prevail in the early years of Monetary Union. BIS Review 9/1999  –3–  The stability-oriented monetary policy strategy rests on two “pillars”. The first pillar is a prominent role for money. This is deemed to be important on account of the essentially monetary origins of inflation over the longer term. The second pillar of the monetary policy strategy is a broadly based assessment of the outlook for price developments and the risks to price stability in the euro area as a whole. The Governing Council recognises that it is important, in parallel with the assessment of monetary growth, to look at a wide range of financial and other economic indicators, including economic forecasts. This systematic analysis of all other relevant information about economic and financial conditions will ensure that the Governing Council is as well-informed as possible when taking monetary policy decisions. Monetary developments can reveal useful information about future price developments and thereby offer an important compass for the conduct of monetary policy. Therefore, it is absolutely essential for any central bank entrusted with the task of keeping prices stable to analyse and monitor the developments of monetary aggregates closely. Consequently, the Governing Council of the ECB has announced a quantitative reference value for broad monetary growth as measured by M3, which should, under normal circumstances, give some indication of future inflationary pressure.

12  The Bank of England is now working with the FCA and HMT to make  this a reality, and we will issue our new blueprint for RTGS in early May. Coordinated Developments in Hard and Soft Infrastructure My third example of the Bank’s efforts to realise FinTech’s promise is our work with industry to help coordinate advances in hard and soft infrastructure. New technologies could transform wholesale payments, clearing and settlement. In particular, distributed ledger technology could yield significant gains in the accuracy, efficiency and security of such processes, saving tens of billions of pounds of bank capital and significantly improving the resilience of the system. 13  12  See “Enabling the FinTech Transformation”, the speech Mark Carney intended to deliver at Mansion House on 16 June 2016. Available at: http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Pages/speeches/2016/914.aspx. 13 Oliver Wyman and Santander estimated that distributed ledger technology could reduce banks’ infrastructure costs attributable to cross-border payments, securities trading and regulatory compliance by $ per annum by 2022. See: https://santanderinnoventures.com/fintech2/ 7  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  7  Securities settlement seems particularly ripe for innovation. A typical settlement chain involves many intermediaries, making it comparatively slow and keeping operational risks high. Industry has begun to work together to determine how distributed ledger technologies could be used to solve these issues at scale. The Bank is participating in several related initiatives. To help distinguish distributed ledger’s potential from its hype, we have completed our own Proof of Concept.