is to ensure that larger banks and building societies operating in the uk are, and are able to demonstrate that they are, resolvable, and that they are accountable for this. the raf is therefore central to our commitment to end ‘ too big to fail ’ and to having a regime which is ‘ fit and ready ’ to achieve that. as i said earlier, the uk ’ s resolution regime is well set up to give us options, in good or bad economic situations, when a firm fails. while the bank of england is responsible for undertaking a resolution, having the legal powers is necessary but not sufficient for an orderly resolution ; firms also need to play their part by making the changes necessary to ensure a bail - in resolution transaction can be executed. action by firms to be prepared for a resolution reduces the risks of disruption as the authorities act and provides the authorities with credible options and the flexibility to respond to a crisis. earlier this week the bank published a dear ceo letter which i sent to the ceos of the eight largest uk banks and building societies18, providing more hmt consultation paper on an expanded resolution regime for central counterparties. you can find the letter here. all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches and @ boe _ pressoffice guidance on our expectations under the raf. publishing this letter demonstrates our ongoing commitment to make the regime and firms ’ resolvability more transparent and better understood. the raf is the lens through which we will judge a firm ’ s resolvability – in terms of being able to financially and operationally support itself through a resolution, so that a resolution and restructuring can be orderly. in one policy, it demonstrates our transparent, flexible, proportionate, and credible approach to resolvability. making the uk resolution regime more transparent and better understood is at the heart of the aims of the raf. disclosures made by firms and the public statements with views on individual firms made by the bank are a major component of the raf – and my dear ceo letter reinforces our existing expectations. each of the major uk banks will assess their preparations for resolution, submit a report of their assessment and publish a summary of their report every two years. the bank will also make its own public statement on the resolvability of these banks. combined with our policy statements and our annual publication of loss absorbency requirements, this aims to help investors better understand the progress firms are making to become more

banco de espana is stepping up the efforts it devotes both to monitoring technological innovation and to anticipating its potential consequences. through a crossdepartmental working structure, various matters are being addressed in order to contribute to constructing an informed opinion and helping define the central bank ’ s strategic positioning. subjects under analysis are, for instance, the implications of the provisions of the new directive on payment services, known as psd2, whose partial transposition in spain is imminent, under the government ’ s annual regulatory plan, and to which i shall shortly refer. and there are also other topical matters, such as distributed ledger technology, “ cloud ” computing and the phenomenon of sovereign digital currencies. 3 / 8 against this backdrop, the aim of my address is to offer some observations as to how the new technologies are changing the traditional bank - customer relationship, and to highlight the need for banks and customers to responsibly manage this new scenario. likewise, i wish to stress the importance of financial education in this new scenario. customers have more options, but also more responsibility, and it is essential they should be aware of this. returning to the origins of the concern for the rights of bank customers. to set these observations in perspective, we might recall that concern in spain to safeguard customer rights arose in the 1980s, as a consequence of the liberalisation the industry underwent and which enshrined freedom of contract – of interest rates and commissions – at the core of its workings. accompanying this process, legislators adopted a series of measures aimed at boosting competition among banks, including most notably the enhanced comparative information with which banks must provide their customers, so that they may know the content of their rights and obligations before and once they have given their consent. however, this concern for customer rights came into being and developed in a context of maximum customer confidence towards banks and, most importantly, towards bank employees, which, in short, led to a high degree of customer loyalty to banks. during the 1990s and in the first half of the last decade such loyalty was negatively and slowly impacted by growing competition and the subsequent need to improve net interest margins. and the crisis unleashed as from 2007 saw the culmination of this deterioration and led to a significant loss of confidence by customers in banks, giving rise to a new scenario. against this background of public mistrust in banks, and the weakening of the aforementioned degree of loyalty, the new technologies add additional challenges for the industry when it comes to tending to