let me take you back again to 1958. in the very first television interview given by a governor of the bank of england, cameron cobbold explained national debt to robin day on “ tell the people ”, the highlight of itn ’ s sunday evening schedule fifty years ago. here is the exchange : cobbold : the national debt represents the sums of money which the government have over the years borrowed from the public, mainly in this country and, to some extent, abroad. that is really the amount of expenditure which they have failed over the period to cover by revenue. day : have we paid for world war ii? cobbold : no. day : have we paid for world war i? cobbold : no. day : have we paid for the battle of waterloo? cobbold : i don ’ t think you can exactly say that. on this occasion, we should have little difficulty in evaluating when we have paid for the recapitalisation. there are, though, questions about the source of the funding and the level of borrowing by the country as a whole from overseas. for several years, the uk banking sector has been relying extensively on external capital flows, principally short - term wholesale funding, to finance its lending activities. those external inflows have fallen sharply – a mild form of the reversal of capital inflows experienced by a number of emerging market economies in the 1990s. unless they are replaced by other forms of external finance, the adjustments in the trade deficit and exchange rate will need to be larger and faster than would otherwise have occurred, implying a larger rise in domestic saving and weaker domestic spending in the short run. with the bank recapitalisation plan in place, we now face a long, slow haul to restore lending to the real economy, and hence growth of our economy, to more normal conditions. the past few weeks have been somewhat too exciting. the actions that were taken were not designed to save the banks as such, but to protect the rest of the economy from the banks. i hope banks will come to appreciate, just as the new zealanders at headingley in 1958, the yorkshire virtues of patience and sound defence when batting on a sticky wicket. i have said many times that successful monetary policy would appear rather boring. so let me extend an invitation to the banking industry to join me in promoting the idea that a little more boredom would be no bad thing. the long march back to boredom and stability starts tonight in leeds.

ravi menon : foundational infrastructures for an inclusive digital economy opening remarks by mr ravi menon, managing director of the monetary authority of singapore, at the launch of report on foundational digital infrastructures, 26 april 2021. * * * the rapid adoption of digital solutions has enhanced the economic and social well - being of millions of people around the world. but many of these solutions are not interoperable. digital transactions are not seamless and we are not able to exploit the full efficiency benefits of digitalisation. it also means that the digital economy is not as inclusive as it should be. to create a truly efficient and inclusive digital economy, digitalisation must be end - toend. digital innovation is not just about the number of patents or the sophistication of the algorithms. we must put people at the heart of innovation, by creating end - to - end digital solutions that will purposefully improve their lives. we need foundational digital infrastructures – systems that allow different users, different solutions, and different devices to seamlessly interact with one another. foundational digital infrastructures will enable interoperable solutions and seamless digital services to reach more people and businesses, at lower cost and greater convenience. they will enable more pervasive digitalisation within and across economies. just as physical infrastructures like railroads helped to advance the industrial economy, digital infrastructures will spur the growth of the digital economy. the public and private sectors must come together to co - create common digital infrastructures, and avoid the pitfalls of isolated technology solutions - ‘ digital islands ’ and ‘ walled gardens ’. as a step in this direction, mas, together with the central banks of brunei, cambodia, ghana and kenya, and with support from mastercard, has published a report on ‘ foundational digital infrastructures for inclusive digital economies ’. there are four foundational digital infrastructures. first, digital identity. a digital identity establishes confidence and trust at both ends of the digital interaction. it enables access to the realm of public and private digital services across different sectors ; it promotes digital inclusion. a digital identity may be centralised or decentralised, provided by the public sector or private sector. how it is designed will depend on a country ’ s institutional and legal frameworks, digital literacy, and culture and attitudes towards issues such as privacy and security. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches second, authorisation and consent. to foster public confidence that digital transactions are safe and secure, we need mechanisms for