advance of any launch. and there are a host of issues that still need to be addressed – from maintaining the highest standards of operational resilience and managing financial risks, to addressing privacy and anti - money laundering concerns. like benoit, we recognise that these initiatives were not conceived in a vacuum ; rather they seek to address long - standing problems in payments. despite the ongoing revolution in online commerce, payments are often more expensive than they need be and still take too long to clear. uk card payments are convenient and they are now the most popular means of payment, but they can cost between 0. 5 % and 2 % of the total transaction value, and it can take three days for the merchant to receive their money. the scope for improving cross border payments is bigger still. these can cost up to 10 times their domestic equivalent. anti - money laundering checks that are rightly required can be cumbersome. settlement is slow, with money taking up to a week to reach the recipient. during his time at the ecb, benoit oversaw significant progress in building a pan - european payments system for the wholesale side. nonetheless, developments in retail payments have lagged. euro - area customers are now starting to turn to non - european cards when making non - cash payments. last month, sensing the opportunity for another speech, benoit announced that the ecb ’ s governing council was relaunching its retail payments strategy. the goal is to create a retail payments system that is as convenient, cost - effective, safe and secure when operating across borders as across the shop counter ; and one that works as well for merchants outside the eu as it does for those within it. delivering a better retail payments experience will require the ecb and the bank of england to provide the best - in - class payment infrastructure that can enable private innovators to deliver the payment products and services our citizens need. we intend to collaborate closely, sharing perspectives on policy issues and technical designs. and we look forward to leveraging advancements arising from benoit ’ s new role leading the bis innovation hub. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches innovation is best achieved by empowering competition. for the bank, this means levelling the playing field between old and new by allowing new entrants access to the same resources as incumbents, while holding similar risks to similar standards. it also means updating our public infrastructure to enable state - of - the - art private

improving their human capital skills, including presentational skills, to instil confidence in potential investors. the bank hopes to produce, before the end of the year, a follow up to the 1996 report. we expect to be able to demonstrate encouraging progress in a number of areas ( particularly the provision of seed, start - up and early stage new capital ). closing remarks much of the focus of today ’ s conference has been on high - growth, entrepreneurial firms - the gazelles. it is important also to remember the great majority of small firms that are not intent on breaking speed limits and are quite content driving in the middle lane, do not have. com in their names, but are steadily contributing to output and employment. these firms are important. nonetheless, it is the high growth firms that will continue to remain at the leading edge of the creation of an entrepreneurial economy. continued public and private sector support for these firms is vital. the bank of england will seek to continue to play its part, both in maintaining macroeconomic stability and in encouraging the better financing of growing businesses.