##p / 16 / 50. for other analysis see the gadhia report produced for the uk treasury entitled ‘ empowering productivity : harnessing the talents of women in financial services ’, which notes that companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 per cent more likely to have financial returns above their respective national industry medians. the report also notes that in the uk, for every 10 per cent increase in gender diversity, earnings before interest and tax ( ebit ) rose by 3. 5 per cent. 15 see central bank of ireland gender pay gap report 2018. 16 see central statistics office report women and men in ireland 2016. 17 see central bank of ireland strategic plan 2019 – 2021. 18 see markievicz, c., 1995. irish citizen. m. ward, in their own voice : women and irish nationalism. attic press ltd. 5 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches

domestic books. payments system issues the second area that i would like to touch on is the rba ’ s payments system work. here, there are two issues of particular focus over the year ahead. the first is the industry efforts to develop a new 21st century payments system for australia. these efforts are, to a significant degree, in response to the rba ’ s strategic review of innovation in the payments system that was concluded in 2012. while some aspects of australia ’ s payments system rank relatively well by global standards, the underlying architecture for some of our systems has aged and is limiting innovation. one example of this that many of you may be familiar with is that when you send a payment from your online bank account to another person or business you are limited to just 18 characters in describing the payment. the reason for this restriction is that the entire payment instruction – including the bsb, the amount, the banks involved etc. – is limited to just 120 characters. and the origin of this limit is the capacity of the magnetic tapes that were used to exchange information between banks and, before that, the capacity of computer punch cards with their 80 columns. in effect, our payments system in 2015 is still being constrained by the technology of earlier generations. so it is difficult to argue that this renewal of our payments system is before time! the new system will allow australians to transfer money to one another almost instantly, no matter where they bank. it will also remove the need to know somebody ’ s bsb to make a payment ; just a phone number or email address will be needed. and we will no longer be limited to just 18 characters in describing the payment ; instead we will be able to send a wealth of information. the industry is working hard on building this new system. it is a very significant piece of work, involving many hundreds of millions of dollars, and the timeline is relatively tight. but when finished, it is likely to form the backbone of many of our payment systems over the next few decades. the rba is closely involved in all of this work. it has played a major role in establishing the broad direction of the industry ’ s efforts. it is building a core piece of infrastructure that will allow payments to be settled in real time. and it is also building the capability for our own customers – primarily the australian government – to use this new payment system. the second area of focus over the next year is the ongoing review of the regulation of the card payments system. earlier in 2015