inflation target - rpix ( that is, retail prices excluding mortgage interest payments ) of 2. 5 % - is set by the government and confirmed in the budget each year. and this target is symmetrical. we on the mpc are as concerned about inflation being below 2. 5 % as we are about it being above 2. 5 %. indeed, if inflation is more than 1 % above or below target, the governor is required to write an open letter to the chancellor to explain why. but the accountability of the mpc is much wider than this. it has to answer to court ( the bank ’ s board made up largely of non - executive directors ) and to the treasury select committee. but of equal importance, through publication of the inflation report and the minutes of its monthly meetings, the mpc answers to the public, setting out in some detail the decisions it has made. and this accountability is personal. the votes of each of the nine individual members are recorded in the minutes. as you might imagine, knowing that one ’ s voting record will be subject to public scrutiny helps wonderfully to concentrate the mind. but we think it is important that differences of view are properly reflected ; and nor is it altogether surprising that differences of view exist given the uncertainties in economic forecasting. transparency is another key ingredient of the new framework. holding mpc meetings on a regular monthly cycle, with minutes published within two weeks, contrasts with the more ad hoc approach of the past, chancellors announcing changes with little or no notice and with limited explanation. the minutes not only record the discussion within the mpc and explain the decision reached but also list the data that the committee has considered. the committee relies primarily on official statistics but these are often produced on aggregate basis and with a lag. the bank, therefore, relies to a considerable extent on its established network of twelve regional agents who have the role of finding out from local businesses and firms their views on the state of the economy. the agents maintain direct contact with around 7, 000 businesses across the uk and provide a monthly report for each region to the mpc. where there are particular concerns, the mpc also commissions the agents to carry out inquiries on specific issues. because of the time it takes for changes in interest rates to impact on inflation, it is perhaps too early to judge the success of these new arrangements. we could argue that we have made a reasonable start, given the period of sustained growth with low inflation and falling unemployment

of legal entity identifiers ( lei ) to a wider range of transactions in the longer term. i ’ m sure many of you are familiar with the lei, as part of mifid ii transaction reporting. as well as being a valuable financial reporting tool, we believe the lei could be a building block for further innovation, delivering wider economic benefits for end users of financial services – increased usage could raise efficiency, competition and productivity18. as well as the benefits that come with international harmonisation, greater flexibility, and richer payments data, there are gains to be had for system - wide resilience. using the same messaging standard across many payment systems will help to facilitate the re - routing of payment messages, reducing the impact of system outages. this is going to be a transformational change for payments in the uk – the first stage of the cutover for chaps is planned to occur in 2022. so i encourage any of you engaged in systems or settlement to start considering now the impact on your own systems and operations – both so you can be ready for the change and take advantage of the benefits. and at the softer end of our infrastructure agenda, we have the fca, hmt and bank ’ s fair and effective markets work19, which aims to catalyse improvements to fairness and effectiveness in ficc markets. a focus of this work on the immediate horizon will be the use of technology in post - trade. a new messaging standard for uk payments : iso 20022. available at : https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / payment - andsettlement / rtgs - renewal - programme / consultation - on - a - new - messaging - standard - for - uk - payments - iso20022 see https : / / www. ecb. europa. eu / paym / target / tips / html / index. en. html ramsden, d. ( 2018 ). setting standards. available at : https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / speech / 2018 / dave - ramsden - remarks - at - iso20022 - conference see https : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / markets / fair - and - effective - markets all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / publications / pages / speeches / default. aspx given the challenges to the use of technology in post - trade that i mentioned earlier,