be made to companies and households. if these sound like small steps for mankind, then they are giant ones for regulators. this is the first time in the bank ’ s 318 - year history that it has attempted such “ macro - prudential ” regulation. of course, it is impossible for the fpc or anyone else to eliminate mini - booms and mini - busts in credit. but the fpc can legitimately aim to head - off the maxi - booms, such as the pre - crisis one, and the maxi - busts, the like of which we are currently experiencing. that should be good for medium - term growth, by preventing a build - up of excessive leverage. and because financial booms and busts are inherently inequitable, it ought also to be good for the distribution of this growth across society. fifth, we really must do a much better job of promoting competition in financial services. the most shocking statistic is that, up until 2010, no new bank had been set up in this country for a century. we need to raise our levels of ambition when breaking down barriers to entry into banking, to ensure bank customers get a fair and efficient deal. although there is no silver bullet solution to the competition problem, i am attracted to recent proposals which would place some core banking services in the hands of a shared utility, storing customer account details. at present, this information is private which acts as a barrier to entry by new banks. it also acts as an impediment to consumers switching and searching between banks and their products. with customer information held in a network utility, like the electricity grid or railway network, banks could plug and play when offering deposits and loans to customers. the costs of entering the banking market would be lowered for new banks. and so too would the costs of searching and switching for customers, between banks and between products, rather as you might between gas or mobile phone suppliers. there is already some encouraging evidence of new entrants to the banking market. in weak moments, i think that we might even be on the cusp of a technological revolution in banking. certainly, some new firms are bringing new technologies to banking – for example, through mobile payments. others are mobilising pools of non - bank funds to finance lending directly – peer - to - peer lending, crowd - funding, invoice - financing. others still are demonstrating that a clear focus on retail banking services, delivered locally by forging long

, we are eager to hear specifics from institutions so that we can develop targeted solutions. conclusion mr. chairman, in my remarks today i have described the federal reserve's views on suggested changes to the current regulatory risk - based capital regime, namely the proposals for basel ii and amended basel i. i have outlined the need for change, the work completed to date, and some of the lessons learned. in our view, recent exercises such as qis4 have served as useful indicators of the progress being made and the direction needed for these initiatives on regulatory capital requirements. qis4 was part of an extended series of activities to ensure that the suggested regulatory capital revisions are implemented in an appropriate and prudent manner. from the federal reserve's perspective, we should continue to move forward with the activities i described, while seeking comment and listening to feedback at every stage. our support for basel ii stems from the belief that it would provide a much better measure of minimum regulatory capital at the largest, most complex institutions, aligning capital with risks to which these institutions are exposed. we also believe that basel ii would bring about substantial improvements in risk management to those institutions. at the same time, amending basel i for the vast majority of banking institutions in the united states could improve the reflection of risks in basel i - based rules without much additional burden. taken together, these initiatives should ensure adequate minimum capital cushions, allow fair competition, maintain safety and soundness, and enhance financial stability. i am pleased to answer your questions. 6 / 6