in recent years, and in june 2018 set out that the balance sheet would be unwound at a gradual and predictable pace, allowing reserves to fall back to a level demanded by banks through their participation in regular repo operations, and once the bank rate had risen to around 1. 5 %, thus creating more headroom for the future use of bank rate both up and down. the mpc keeps this approach under review, though i should make clear that it does not seem like an imminent issue in current conditions. but we are looking at the next decade at this conference, so who knows what will happen. we should keep the options to use all our tools as open as possible, so i would conclude that the appropriate policy mix going forwards over a decade may be more nuanced than all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice previously thought. either way, our actions will be guided by our remit of achieving low inflation with financial stability. conclusion the covid crisis to date has demonstrated that qe and forward guidance around it have been effective in a particular situation. it emphasises that we remain in a world where the choice of tool to use is more important than it has been at times in the past. and there is more nuance and flexibility within tools – thus, while qe relies more on stock effects when used in normal times, in a case of extreme market dysfunction the flow effect of the liquidity channel may come to prominence. the mpc has moved on from that approach as market conditions have eased. in june we increased the stock of qe purchases, but at a slower pace. and in august we introduced forward guidance, stating that the committee does not intend to tighten monetary policy until there is clear evidence that significant progress is being made in eliminating spare capacity and achieving the 2 % inflation target sustainably. this important step is intended to ensure monetary conditions do not tighten prematurely when there are some initial signs of an economic recovery. we also made clear that our box does include other tools, including the possibility of negative rates. we have used private sector asset purchases through the corporate bond programme, longer - term liquidity provision to banks with targeted lending incentives, and direct purchasing of newly issued commercial paper to supplement market - based lending channels. we are not out of firepower by any means, and to be honest it looks from today ’ s vantage point that we were too cautious

platform. we are planning how to make the most out of the possibilities of the new platform and how best to meet the needs of industry in the future. in the next few weeks we will consult the industry – not just the current users of rtgs – on proposals for continued evolution of the new platform beyond 2024. the proposals can offer a menu of options each designed to maintain and enhance the resilience of the platform ; and create new opportunities for the industry to innovate. we are keen to understand industry ’ s view on the priorities, costs and benefits of the various ingredients of the roadmap and which they would like to invest in. at the same time we will be publishing a consultation on a revised framework for recovering the build and run costs from industry ( the rtgs tariff ). to whet your appetite i will highlight the three key themes of the consultation. first, creating new ways to connect to rtgsthat are cost - effective, based on open standards and compatible with a wide range of technologies. this includes creating new channels to submit payment instructions, alongside the established sw ift network. we will also continue to evolve our api platform to automate and streamline data exchange with participants. secondly introducing a range of flexible and innovative settlement services to address the changing needs of our users. the specific options include : improving liquidity efficiency, extending operating hours of our system and introducing a new settlement model to enable payment synchronisation. synchronisation would enable the cash movements in rtgs to happen if and only if a corresponding asset on another ledger is transferred. it would create a way for the private sector to build new services for their customers using central bank money. we believe that this model can boost the speed of settlement, reduce risk, and enable further innovation. project meridian9 – our joint initiative with the bis innovation hub london centre – will prototype and test end - to - end flow of synchronised settlement, which could be used for different trades such as securities and foreign exchange. this project will provide meaningful insights to make our rtgs systems more interoperable. the third topic of the consultation is how we can maintain and enhance the resilience of rtgsin light of the rapidly changing environment leveraging technology to enhance resilience. we will consider evolving or replacing our back - up settlement site and enabling chaps to act as 4 / 6 bis central bankers'speeches a contingency for critical retail payments. the consultation