tests be met, a decision to join a successful single currency can be made early in the next parliament. to help with the essential preparations, the chancellor has invited the governor of the bank of england and the heads of the two main bodies representing industry and commerce, and two other ministers, to join him on a standing committee to lead the preparations for emu. 12. in the uk wholesale financial markets, practical preparations are accordingly proceeding apace. 13. we at the bank of england have been taking an active role in helping the uk financial markets to prepare for the euro. we do this because, even though the uk will not be in at the start, it is plain that banks and financial institutions in the uk, in their wholesale business for their corporate and institutional customers, in the uk and overseas, will want to be able to offer the full range of financial facilities in the euro from the outset. they will want to be able to offer their customers deposits and foreign exchange facilities in the euro, lending and borrowing in the euro, hedging and collateral in the euro and financing and settlement facilities. the london markets will need to be able to operate in euro from the outset across the full range of their wholesale activities, and practical preparations are now well advanced to achieve that by january 1999. 14. the bank of england ’ s part in this extensive process of market - wide preparation, besides equipping ourselves internally for operations in the euro, is a co - ordinating one, in three main ways : • first, our job is to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is developed in the uk to allow anyone who wishes to do so to use the euro in wholesale payments and across the financial markets from the first day of emu. • second, we aim to promote discussion between the emi, national central banks and market participants across europe about practical issues on which the market is seeking a degree of coordination. • and third, we provide information : for example, through a quarterly publication on practical issues arising from the introduction of the euro, which is distributed to around 32, 000 recipients, including 4, 000 directly overseas. the next edition will appear shortly, neatly timed for people ’ s christmas reading, and i confidently expect it to be on the best sellers ’ list for the festive season. and following the successful symposium we held early this year, we are planning to hold a further symposium, next january at the bank, on london as the international financial centre for the euro. 15.

risk on the largest payments flows – the ones most likely to threaten financial stability by bringing down the system if they failed. but that is not the only innovation that rtgs has delivered over the years. as the financial system has evolved, rtgs has been regularly updated, introducing a raft of new functions and risk mitigants to respond to changing demands. today, we are announcing that the bank has completed, or agreed steps that will complete, all the actions in response to the deloitte report 4 published in march last year following the rtgs outage in october 2014. looking forward, as we celebrate rtgs ’ twentieth birthday during 2016, it is again time to ask fundamental questions about the shape of the bank ’ s settlement operations. the way payments are made has changed dramatically in recent years, reflecting changes in the needs of households and companies, changes in technology, and an evolving regulatory landscape. the range of payment providers is growing rapidly. given the implications of these changes for the bank ’ s mission and for users, businesses and regulators, it is important that the bank consider how rtgs will need to evolve to meet and shape payments trends in the coming decades. that is why we are today announcing our plan to design a blueprint for a new heart that can support the future demands placed on the uk ’ s high - value sterling settlement system. in my remaining remarks tonight i want to do three things. first, set out some of the key drivers of change. second, explain some of the strategic questions we want to ask on the future role of rtgs. and, third, set out how we will go about developing a blueprint for a new high value payments system. either directly in the case of high - value payments made via chaps, or indirectly after netting in the case of retail payments made via the various private sector schemes. the deloitte report on the october 2014 rtgs outage can be found here : http : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / publications / documents / news / 2015 / rtgsdeloitte. pdf. an update on the completion of the recommendations of the deloitte report can be found here : http : / / www. bankofengland. co. uk / markets / documents / paymentsystems / deliotteactions. pdf. bis central bankers ’ speeches evolution in the payments landscape much has changed in the uk payments landscape in the past twenty years. in particular, i want