from master masons to information architects : how standards can transform reporting ( and bring benefits well beyond it ) speech given by gareth ramsay, executive director for data and analytics & chief data officer webinar hosted by the edm council 14 april 2021 i am grateful to aaron shiret and angus moir for their assistance in writing these remarks, and to nicola bennett, ben broadbent, victoria cleland, matt corder, michael davey, dayo forster, andrew hauser, russell jackson, richard lewis, james proudman, vicky purkiss, laurie roberts, paul robinson, beju shah, martin udy, mark walsh and rebecca whitwam for their helpful comments and assistance all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice hello all – it ’ s a great pleasure to be speaking to you. i ’ d like to thank john bottega and the edm council for virtually hosting us today. i want to begin by talking about cathedrals. the great cathedrals of europe were built in the middle ages by teams of skilled stone masons. to get the dimensions of the building right, it is said that each team would use measures based around the body of the master mason : his foot, his stride, his arm, and so on. and so a local standard was born. those standards were designed with one specific use in mind – the construction of that cathedral. and very useful they were, too. but they were closed systems – the foot and the yard used to build one cathedral were different from those used to build another. and this was not just an english peculiarity : across the channel, a foot length in strasbourg was 295 mm, a foot in paris was 325 mm, but a foot in bordeaux was a relative whopper at 344 mm1. of course people came to understand the great benefits of enforcing universal, common standards. in part for maintaining the cathedrals themselves, so that new, replacement stones could be sourced that would fit snugly between their neighbours. but the benefits of universal measurement standards could be applied a long way beyond the niche discipline of cathedral building. now some of you may think that today ’ s financial system is not perfectly comparable to the glorious gothic cathedrals of the middle ages. but like those cathedrals, many of the data systems underpinning today ’ s financial firms and markets were built with narrow reference to their own needs

to a growing recognition that those benefits can by - pass poor countries, and poor communities within countries, and that it is in our collective interest that those who are excluded, one way or another, should be helped to help themselves to participate in those benefits. in the context of globalisation, that was reflected in the doha agreement on a new round of world trade negotiations ; and development financing will be the theme of the monterrey summit next month. but there has been increasing recognition, too, that the private sector has its role to play, alongside governments, and it was to encourage and promote the engagement of private sector firms with disadvantaged, excluded, sectors of our society, through charitable and community involvement, that the heart of the city campaign was launched, very successfully under andrew buxton's leadership, last year. i'm encouraged, too, by the evidence of clear community of interest between the financial authorities and the private sector in its commercial activity. their co - operation enabled the system to cope remarkably well with the potential dislocation following the 11th september attacks - and i congratulate the federal reserve in particular and all of you who played a part in that achievement. the same co - operation is contributing now to the international financial war against terrorism, and to the strengthening of our disaster contingency plans. it contributed, too, to the flawless introduction of euro notes and coin into the eurozone - so well managed by the ecb and in which many of you, again, played your part. another example is the intensive consultation and co - operation on the development of the basel 2 regime for banking supervision. i'm encouraged finally by the continuing sense of community among financial professionals here in london. this was movingly evident in their spontaneous demonstration of solidarity with their counterparts in new york following 11th september. but it was evident too in the formation earlier last year of the guild of international bankers, our co - hosts this evening, and of which you, lord mayor locum tenens, are the founding master. it takes on the mantle - or, perhaps more appropriately, takes over the ledger - from the bankers club which has contributed so much to the city's professional esprit de corps over so many years. so it has, as i said, been a long, hard year, president, but it has certainly had its positive moments. and i should like to conclude by paying tribute this evening to the role of the city corporation and of the mayoralty, and their contribution