inflation developments, and whether we might be better off locked away inside one of the super - currencies, obeying the laws that apply there and at the mercy of the decisions of others. all these considerations and many others can stoke the fires of debate at this conference in iceland. some people maintain that the incredible gains that iceland has made over a very few years could only have been achieved because the country had its own currency. others say that the consequences may be more difficult to deal with and more persistent precisely because the country has its own currency and is not under the wing of a large currency area. yet others claim that if iceland fixes itself against another currency and obeys the laws of others – interest rates based on what is happening in france, italy and germany and not in iceland – that this will produce a more cautious attitude up here in the frozen north, the appetite for risk will diminish and economic developments will take a healthier turn. thus there are countless questions, of which i have mentioned only a few. of course i have taken care in these opening remarks to leave all these questions open for those who follow. it is a particular pleasure to have lured so many distinguished guests here to do theoretical battle about these questions. it is equally welcome to give our leading experts the opportunity and time to ponder these issues and present their own views. so everything promises a rewarding outcome from this conference. it has been organised with ample reason, in the right place and at the right time, and with exceptionally qualified speakers.

may not always have complete clarity on the basis on which such trades are executed ( internalised vs externally traded, principal vs agent ) or rejected. and it recognises that, in seeking quotes, it may be leaking information about its position. but broadly speaking it is content with the service it receives on fx, and feels it has bigger fish to fry elsewhere. in many ways, it is hard to label this case ‘ bad ’. the firm is trying to inform itself about market trends. but it recognises that fx is a professional market, whose complexities it needs assistance to navigate. it knows it may not always be getting the finest price, or the perfect service – but feels that the cost / benefit case for investing in a lot of extra data or understanding is not in its favour. at the same time, however, this situation is sub - optimal in terms of market - wide functioning : pricing may be inefficient, perhaps materially so, and other elements of the service offering fall short of best practice. collective, market - wide action to improve competition and standards would benefit this firm and many others – raising all ships. but the firm itself feels powerless to drive that change by itself. it ’ s that missed opportunity that is ‘ bad ’, or perhaps better put, ‘ sad ’. the third and final stylised storyline is definitely ‘ ugly ’. it involves a large and regular buyside user of fx markets which chooses to operate through a single relationship bank, which also provides custodian services. it places all of its fx business with the bank to work through over an extended period. it has no see for instance https : / / newsroom. nex. com / news / 04092018 / nex - markets - experiences - a - reduction - in - hold - times - and - reject - rates - as - aresult - of - the - fx - code - of - conduct, which shows that, for one of the platforms in chart 4, hold times have fallen from 93 to 37 milliseconds since introduction of the code, with 97 % of trades with the top 10 liquidity providers now being filled at the original quote price. https : / / codeforces. com / blog / entry / 65002 all speeches are available online at www. bankofengland. co. uk / news / speeches connections to other venues, does no material tca, and receives no specific timestamping on