##ts turner, we took the process of selecting a new banknote character out of the black box and brought it into the sunlight. in december 2013, the bank of england committed to making our character selection process much more open and transparent. first, the banknote character advisory committee was created and then decided the field of accomplishment. they chose visual arts, which had never before been properly displayed on a banknote. the bank then invited the public to make nominations in this field. they proposed artists, sculptors, printmakers, designers, craftspeople, ceramicists, architects, fashion designers, photographers and filmmakers. indeed, the response was exceptional. we received almost 30, 000 individual suggestions, between them nominating 590 different eligible characters – demonstrating not only the depth of achievement of british art but also the public ’ s passion for it. this pool was handed to our expert banknote advisory committee – john akomfrah, sir david cannadine, andrew graham - dixon, sandy nairne, alice rawsthorn, baroness lola young, and, from the bank, deputy governor ben broadbent and chief cashier victoria cleland. they used their considerable knowledge, supplemented with views from public focus groups, and whittled down to a shortlist of five characters. what were the criteria? bis central bankers ’ speeches first, an unquestioned contribution to the visual arts. second, a wider contribution to british society. and third, an enduring influence. the strength of the other four characters on the final shortlist – filmmaker charlie chaplin, sculptor barbara hepworth, painter william hogarth, and designer josiah wedgwood – gives a sense of the exceptional pedigree of british visual arts – and contextualises turner ’ s contribution. to develop this point, i ’ d like to now introduce a short film from the committee members celebrating some of the nominated visual artists and outlining their views on the process that led to turner being chosen. * * * so as darwin is about to be replaced on one of our notes and churchill is to appear on another, it ’ s fitting that turner should be unveiled on the next. and here is the new image for the new turner banknote. it features turner ’ s self - portrait, from 1799, currently on display in the tate britain ; and one of his most eminent paintings – the fighting temeraire – which can be seen in the national gallery. this painting was a tribute to the hms temeraire, which played a distinguished role in

the financial services action plan which is due in principle to be completed in 2005. but everyone accepts that a great deal remains to be done - in the context of the integration agenda - and in fact it is bound to be an ongoing process as markets evolve and new issues arise. in that context the recent agreement on alexandre lamfalussy's proposals for a faster track procedure in securities markets has been generally welcomed. but the on - going debate extends beyond that to where more precisely we want to get to. at one extreme - and i exaggerate to make the point - some appear to have a vision of maximum harmonisation across the eu, with uniform regulation and centralised oversight at some point in the future, whereas others lean more towards harmonisation only to the extent to which it is demonstrably necessary, with mutual recognition, and an eu - wide passport based primarily on the removal of barriers to cross - border activity. of course that approach leaves plenty of room for debate about what exactly “ demonstrably necessary ” means. underlying the debate at that level are legitimate differences in priorities as between the different public policy concerns - how much weight to put upon consumer protection as against systemic stability or freer competition, for example, which are not necessarily easy to resolve even at the national level. and there may - just possibly - also be, less legitimate, differing perceptions of national self interest. the truth is that there are no easy answers, and i think myself that we are bound to move forward in a pragmatic, incremental, way - recognising the different considerations that apply in different areas of the markets rather than on the basis of a grand design. in this context, i am actually rather encouraged by the recent discussion papers put out by eurofi and the wicks group, which stand back a little from the more immediate issues and look at the way forward in a broader - and longer - term - perspective. they seem to me to have quite a lot in common in terms of immediate priorities, although there are important differences in terms of where we may ultimately end up. i welcome in particular their shared emphasis on involving practitioners in consultation on the way forward at every stage - indeed we might have made more progress if that procedure had been more generally adopted hitherto. i welcome also the emphasis in the eurofi paper on evolution - which is implicit too in wicks - but i am less sure about the eurofi presumption at this point of necessary and