libor : entering the endgame speech given by andrew bailey governor of the bank of england bloomberg webinar, london and new york 13 july 2020 i am grateful to alastair hughes for his assistance in drafting these remarks and paul brione, andrew hauser, thomas horn, will parry and edwin schooling latter for their input. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches introduction “ ‘ the passing of summer, ’ i thought. ‘ there can be no summer in this land without cricket. ’ ” so wrote the journalist and author neville cardus. 1 covid has deprived us of many aspects of our communal lives this year. it has meant no cricket for us until last week, and in the us still no baseball. and to prove that we share an obsession with summer pastimes, a former colleague from many years ago when i was seconded to the new york fed gave me a book to read called ‘ how life imitates the world series ’. sadly, my speech cannot match that for importance. but a more recent summer tradition has been speaking on libor, a now annual event for the past few years – but one i do not expect to be a permanent fixture. the time is fast approaching to draw stumps on the libor benchmark, or for those to whom cricket is a mystery – after all not everyone appreciates a sport that can last five days and still end in a draw – we will soon be at the bottom of the ninth for libor. though from experience, i know the bottom of the ninth can last for eternity in a close baseball game. the continued importance of the transition away from libor public authorities and market participants across jurisdictions have now been working together to transition away from reliance on libor for a number of years. its weaknesses were originally exposed during the global financial crisis and while reforms have improved the governance and administration of the rate, the markets on which it is based have long since shrunk to a trickle of transactions. we see little prospect of those markets returning. plans now need to be in place to transition from libor to alternative reference rates by end 2021. john and i will speak about the progress that has been made. with 18 months to go these plans must now be acted upon in the time remaining. with the authorities, businesses and households all having to adapt to the challenges of lockdown and new ways of working, there have been calls to step

ravi menon : three “ c ” s of a good payment instrument welcome address by mr ravi menon, managing director of the monetary authority of singapore ( mas ), at the currency conference 2011, singapore, 3 october 2011. * * * why cash is still king distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good morning and a warm welcome to singapore and the 2011 currency conference. singapore is honoured and delighted to host this flagship event. the late mr john shepherd - barron, who pioneered in 1967 the development of the automated teller machine, or atm, said during a 2007 interview : “ money costs money to transport. i am therefore predicting the demise of cash within three to five years. ” shepherd - barron believed fervently that we would soon be swiping our mobile phones at till points, even for small transactions. we have indeed seen an increasing use of cashless payments at point - of - sale. electronic payment alternatives have mushroomed in many countries, ranging from contactless stored value cards in singapore to real - time settlement of electronic fund transfers in the united kingdom. but cash remains “ king ”. even in advanced economies. this is especially so for person - toperson transactions and micro - payments. take high - tech singapore. the use of electronic payments has proliferated rapidly in recent years. yet, currency - in - circulation has been growing at an average 7 per cent per annum during the last ten years. this has reflected demand from a growing population and a growing economy. less well known is how the demand for cash globally is being driven by tourism. tourists have a habit of taking back home unused currency – both notes and coins. this represents a leakage from circulation and needs to be replaced. we don ’ t have good data on this. but take for example, singapore. last year, we received almost 12 million visitors. if everyone took 8 coins back with them, close to 100 million coins would have leaked out of the country. and it will cost mas about s $ 10 million to replace them. that ’ s why we have been working with the singapore mint, changi airport group, and charity organisations to increase the availability of boxes in various parts of changi airport, for tourists to donate their excess notes and coins before they leave the country. physical cash commands a premium during times of uncertainty. we saw this during the 2008 global financial crisis. within the first month of the collapse of lehman brothers, there was an exceptionally large withdrawal of high denomination notes by banks in