stanley fischer : impact of the global financial crisis on israel ’ s economy address by professor stanley fischer, governor of the bank of israel, to the general assembly of the association of publicly traded companies, jerusalem, 8 december 2008. * * * for more than a year the world has been confronting one of the worst financial crises in over seventy years. this crisis has two phases : the first, financial, and the second, real, in other words a significant slowdown, and possibly even a global recession. both the financial and real effects of the global financial crisis on israel's economy are clearly evident. i would like to stress, however, that israel entered this period in a more favorable state than that in most other countries. on the financial side the crisis is reflected in israel mainly by the fall in prices of shares and corporate bonds, unlike in the advanced and other economies. in addition, the rate of growth declined to 2. 3 percent ( annual rate ) in the third quarter, and it is expected that the slowdown in israel's growth rate will continue, i. e., growth will remain positive, but will slow further, ( to 1. 5 percent in 2009 ), as opposed to a more significant slowdown, or even a recession, in the advanced economies. israel's relatively favorable situation is due to several factors : 1 ) the government's fiscal policy in the last few years was a responsible one. 2 ) the bank of israel ’ s interest rate policy supported financial stability and the ability of the economy to deal successfully with the effects of the slowdown in growth. this, without acting counter to the return of inflation to within the target range. 3 ) a surplus has been created in the current account of the balance of payments. 4 ) israel's foreign exchange reserves are high and rising, as a result of the bank of israel's plan to increase them. 5 ) the levels of growth and employment were high at the onset of the crisis. 6 ) israel's banking system is strong and stable compared with those of the advanced economies. 7 ) israel's capital market did not develop advanced, complex financial instruments whose inherent risk levels are difficult to assess. 8 ) the average debt burden of companies and households is relatively low. the challenge at present is to preserve the economy's relatively favorable position, to take advantage of it to deal with the new situation, and to introduce the measures needed to escape from the period of slowdown without harm

cross - border payments – innovating in a changing world speech given by victoria cleland, executive director, banking, payments and innovation central bank payments conference 13 october 2020 i would like to thank michael pywell, michaela costello, laurie roberts and cameron brooks for their assistance in preparing this speech. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice introduction i was delighted to be invited to speak at this event, during such an exciting time in central banking and the payments industry. i am sorry that we are unable to all meet face to face, not least as it was originally hoped for this conference to take place in athens. i cannot offer you the greek sunshine, but i would like to introduce some greek philosophy to get us started. plato taught us that ‘ necessity is the mother of invention ’ - this year ’ s virtual conference is a great example of that. so thank you to jean - michel and the team for their flexibility and ingenuity in holding this conference during such challenging times. and necessity and invention are at the heart of payments too. every one of us needs to make payments. while the medium of exchange might have undergone considerable invention and innovation since plato ’ s day, the importance of being able to exchange money safely and efficiently has not. the agenda for this conference – covering topics such as cyber security, artificial intelligence and digital currencies - gives an insight into the scale and pace of innovative thinking currently taking place in the payments industry. innovation is at the heart of the topic i will be focusing on today – cross - border payments. i will cover why greater innovation is needed in cross - border payments and outline the g20 initiative to develop a roadmap for action. i will then seek to bring it to life by outlining some of the key developments already underway at the bank of england to support the international agenda in this area. cross - border payments lag behind over the last decade or so, there has been a strong focus on further enhancing domestic payments with a significant increase in instant payments and great innovation at the customer - facing end. just consider our ability to pay for goods and services not just with cards and phones but also with watches and smart speakers. there is also a move to enhance the core underlying infrastructure. in the uk, the bank of england is renewing its real time gross settlement service and pay. uk is developing a new payments architecture for retail