character ‐ speech by andrew bailey | bank of england conclusion winston churchill, jane austen, jmw turner. these are the figureheads who grace our other banknotes, and through their leadership and cultural contribution, they helped shape the vibrant society that is modern britain. the person chosen to feature on a currency, can embody the spirit of a nation. in his remarkable achievements, turing did just that. and in doing so, showed us the way to the future. as the artist anthony gormley remarked, alan turing " unlocked the door between the industrial and the information age ”. and although turing was under appreciated in his lifetime, we can now see how accurate this description is. alan turing was a gay man, whose transformational work in the fields of computer science, codebreaking, and developmental biology, was still not enough to spare him the appalling treatment to which he was subjected. by placing him on this new £50 banknote, we celebrate him for his achievements, and the values he symbolises, for which we can all be very proud. andrew bailey governor, bank of england sign up for latest updates banknote character ‐ speech by andrew bailey | bank of england

relatively high leverage ratio. reduced profits hamper firms ’ ability to generate internal financing while, at the same time, external financing conditions are likely to remain tight, as long as banks continue to de - leverage and other funding markets remain under stress. non - financial corporations ’ default rates for both euro area and european firms have started to increase. the european speculative grade - rated corporations ’ default rate is expected to jump to almost 20 % by the end of 2009, as shown in chart 5. furthermore, credit rating agencies began revising downwards their ratings of non - financial corporations in december 2008. box 6 of the review takes a closer look at the outlook for corporate defaults. it concludes that given the extraordinary nature of recent developments in the financial markets, current forecasts could prove too pessimistic despite the sharp decline in economic activity. the prospect of global and european speculative - grade corporations ’ default rates increasing substantially implies a significant risk to the financial system. another source of risk is the commercial property market where conditions continued to deteriorate over the past six months. in the first quarter of 2009, commercial property prices actually fell in all 13 euro area countries for which data are available. the outlook will remain unfavourable until economic and financial conditions improve and investor appetite for commercial property returns. potential further losses constitute a significant risk for many banks since commercial property loans in the euro area on average account for about 10 % of total loans and, in many cases, exposures are even much larger. euro area household sector turning to the household sector, euro area house price increases continued to ease in 2008, as shown on chart 6. in at least six euro area countries house prices have declined on an annual basis. these developments have been associated with a moderation of both housing demand and supply, but the balance of the changes in demand and supply has been putting downward pressure on prices. the annual rate of growth of loans to the household sector declined sharply in the final quarter of 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009, reflecting the deterioration in housing markets, weakening economic conditions and prospects, and the ongoing tightening in credit standards. according to the results of the april 2009 ecb bank lending survey, a further dampening of households ’ demand for housing loans is expected due to worsened housing market prospects and low consumer confidence. ii. 3. risks in the euro area financial system euro area money markets let me now focus on the euro area financial system. over the past few months, developments in several financial