, and higher average net income growth. 4 the city uk, key facts about uk - based financial and related professional services ( april 2017 ). available at : https : / / www. thecityuk. com / assets / 2017 / reports - pdf / 54c0ebf2b5 / uk - key - facts - 2017 - updated. pdf empowering productivity : harnessing the talents of women in financial services ( june 2015 ). available at : https : / / uk. virginmoney. com / virgin / assets / pdf / virgin - money - empowering - productivity - report. pdf mckinsey & company, diversity matters ( february 2015 ). available a : https : / / assets. mckinsey. com / ~ / media / 857f440109aa4d13a54d9c496d86ed58. ashx credit suisse, gender diversity and corporate performance ( july 2012 ). available at : https : / / www. creditsuisse. com / corporate / en / media / news / articles / media - releases / 2012 / 07 / en / 42035. html all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches the bank of england values diversity for three reasons. first, it is the right thing to do ; a public institution should reflect the people it serves. second, diversity can build the trust required to deliver our remits, as people are more likely to trust people they recognise, reducing misperceptions that we are experts making esoteric decisions in ivory towers for the benefit of others. 5 third, diversity leads to better decision - making, more creative thinking and reduces the risks of groupthink and bias. 6 this last point is critical. almost all decisions in finance are taken under uncertainty, making it especially important that decision makers are exposed to a range of views, and engage in open debates with people whose perspectives challenge the prevailing wisdom. articulating why diversity and inclusion are important has helped the bank move the dial. when i joined the bank, only 17 % of senior managers were women, so we set an ambitious target to reach 35 % by 2020. the bank is on track to achieve this : today, 32 % of senior management are female, considerably above the 14 % industry average. our pipeline of future leaders also looks healthy : 46 % of colleagues below senior management are women. this didn ’ t just happen.

agencies have started to reduce their ‘ government support ’ uplifts for big banks. spreads between senior and structurally subordinated debt of uk g - sibs also suggests that resolution regimes are gaining credibility. the realisation is setting in that bank creditors are at risk if the bank gets into trouble. there certainly appears to have been a jump in awareness at the beginning of this year. the average spread for senior debt issued by european g - sibs increased by over 25 % within little more than a week. in part, this is a result of the entry into force of the brrd, and in the uk the bank ’ s consultation paper on the setting of mrel. 12 but it has almost certainly been reinforced by other events that have brought the issue into sharper relief. as a result, perhaps not surprisingly, there have been calls to amend the regime before it has even been implemented, on the grounds that it will raise costs for banks and make them less able to lend to the real economy and that it is politically impossible to bail in bank creditors. there are clearly some very important and difficult transitional issues here. and no major shift in preventative regulation is ever universally welcome. but, it is, however, possible to view this greater awareness of the new regime in a more positive light. i have mentioned already evidence that expectations of taxpayer bailouts have diminished. perhaps, even more important, one of the key benefits of ensuring that certain creditors know they can be bailed in is that those creditors have a much stronger incentive to monitor and, if necessary, constrain the risks banks are taking. 13 transition to new resolution regime moving to an effective resolution regime, including for the largest cross - border banks, will require a major transition. many larger banks will need to make changes to their structure and financing. there will inevitably be higher costs as the implicit public subsidy is removed. there is no free lunch. this transition needs to be carefully managed. so in conclusion, i want to set out the principles that the bank of england is following to guide the implementation of the new regime. proportionality first and perhaps most important is proportionality. the resolution requirements for a bank should be what is necessary to deliver the resolution strategy for that bank – no more and no less. see bank of england ( 2015 ). the financial stability board has calculated that a withdrawal of government guarantees could reduce banks ’ probability of failure by a third. this draws on evidence in imf and fed ny working papers that