Notable milestones among the world’s major central banks have included: in 1994, the Fed’s decision to announce immediately its target interest rate after each meeting; the announcement of different forms of forward guidance, starting in Japan in 1999; publishing minutes of policy meetings, most recently introduced by the ECB in 2015; and forecasts for interest rates, which the Fed has done since 2012 (Table 1). The major central banks’ engagement strategies have been equally as impressive. For example, the Federal Reserve has a long-standing and extensive commitment to promote community development at the national, regional and local levels. That includes working with communities whose residents are low- and moderate-income. The various initiatives of the Community Development team at the San Francisco Fed are excellent examples of this work. 20  The Federal Reserve has also sought to learn from listening to the views of those same communities. In 2015, the Federal Reserve Board formed a new Community Advisory Council, which contains a diverse group of 15 citizen representatives. It meets with the Fed Board twice a year to provide information and recommendations on policy matters, with a focus on issues relevant to low- and moderate-income residents. Bringing this together, it is possible to construct weighted-average aggregate transparency indices. These show a steady ratchet-up in openness across a range of central banks over time (Chart 5). And if we look at mentions of the world’s major central banks in the main newspapers, these have also been on a steadily-rising trend over time (Charts 6A and 6B).

51  Latterly, however, there are signs these foundations have started to subside. And institutions are being challenged, at least in part, because a different model is emerging in which trust is distributed rather than centralised, social rather than institutional, personal rather than anonymous. 47  Carvalho and Nechio (2014), using the University of Michigan Survey of Consumers. van der Cruijsen et al (2015). 49 For example, Govier (1997), Barber (1983) and Liisberg et al (2015). 50 For example, the work of Rachel Botsman. 51 Acemoglu and Robinson (2012). 48  12  All speeches are available online at www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches  12  One example of that trend concerns a commodity many thousands of years old and one close to central banks’ hearts – money. Money, certainly fiat money, relies for its existence on trust. In many countries over many centuries, this trust was delivered in a centralised, institutionalised and, to a large degree, anonymised way, namely through central banks. Latterly, there are just the faintest signs that could be changing. The Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) first came to prominence through Bitcoin, the crypto-currency. Since then, the range of applications of DLT has expanded massively, well beyond crypto-currencies. What differentiates DLT from earlier technologies is the ability to confer trust on a commodity or transaction without the need for a central institution for verification. Trust is distributed, personalised, socialised. It is too soon to tell whether DLT will revolutionise financial services in general and money in particular.