each other. this reduces the costs of central clearing – costs that are ultimately borne by the real economy – as well as allowing a more efficient and effective management of the risks that brings significant global financial stability benefits. requiring each of these instruments to be cleared in the jurisdiction of the currency in which they are denominated would simply render multi - currency central - clearing impossible. this is but one example of the very many products in these pipes that are by their nature multi - currency. in central clearing, in settlement, in payments if we wish to maintain the infrastructure to sustain an open and integrated global capital market, we will need to build upon the arrangements we have developed for supervisory cooperation and co - ordination. these are not insignificant challenges. but the history of the development of this infrastructure is one of both private and public sector co - operation to provide international plumbing that is both efficient and safe. conclusion and these challenges may be older than we think. th less than a mile from here stands the temple church, built by the knights templar in the 12 century. originally established to protect pilgrims en route to jerusalem, the knights templar soon developed complex international financial operations to store assets and move money across borders. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches in london, pilgrims depositing assets in the temple church received a note that could be redeemed for money when they arrived in the holy city. the templar ’ s wealth and infrastructure grew enormously – aided by the fact that the pope exempted them from all regulation, supervision and taxes. one historian has categorised them as the first multinational corporation. in the end, however, they grew too powerful and the ‘ authorities ’ of the day in rome, paris and london withdrew their ‘ authorisation ’ and disbanded the order. today ’ s infrastructure, developed to support financial globalisation, exceeds by far anything the templars – or the first deputy governor of the bank – might have imagined. these global pipes increase efficiency, lower costs to the real economy and reduce risk. and because they are in essence global, we will have to find co - operative ways to manage the changing risks they present in order to maintain the benefits that they provide. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches

financial centre, over a quarter of global clearing takes place in the uk. we take this supervisory responsibility very seriously – as we do the need for our supervision to keep pace with the growing systemic importance of this infrastructure. given london ’ s role as an international financial centre our aim is to be at the leading edge of supervision of key infrastructure. over the past few years we have been reinforcing our capacity and capability precisely to that end. and we will continue to do so. our annual report to parliament will be published today. it sets out how we have discharged our supervisory responsibilities for fmis over the past year – both through our core assurance programme and our forward - looking assessment of risks – in order to promote and enhance uk financial stability. it also sets out our priorities for the current year and beyond. but as well as accountability, we need independent assurance that we are meeting our aim to be at the forefront of effective, forward looking supervision of financial market infrastructure. last year the imf and cpmi - iosco published independent reviews of the bank ’ s approach to supervision and how far it meets international standards. cpmi - iosco confirmed that the bank ’ s approach is fully consistent with the international standards expected of fmi supervisors. on leading international financial centre, see for example ‘ the global financial centres index 20 ’, september 2016, published by the z / yen group. global clearing is based on bank of england calculations using data from cpmi - iosco quantitative disclosures in 2016 all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / speeches the imf ’ s financial sector assessment programme review of the uk, concluded that “ supervision of financial market infrastructures ( fmis ) in the u. k. has significantly strengthened in recent years ; the bank of england ( boe ) is one of the leaders worldwide in shaping reforms in this area ”. the bank is not content with simply confirming that it currently meets international standards as assessed by cpmi - iosco and the imf. independent challenge is also why the bank of england ’ s court commissioned an in - depth evaluation by the bank ’ s independent evaluation office ( ieo ) of the bank ’ s supervision of financial market infrastructure firms. the ieo report and the bank ’ s response are published later today. the ieo report provides an independent assessment of the bank ’ s reinforcement of this area over the past few years, which goes above and beyond international requirements, reflecting the growing importance of