I am delighted to be opening the 2021 IFABS conference. Your subject is ‘the financial system of tomorrow’ – and I want to kick things off by doing some crystal ball gazing at the role that central banks, as market participants, might play in that future system. It’s actually reassuring to see in that crystal ball that central banks have a role at all. Because whenever central bankers get too big for their boots, it’s worth reminding them that, for most of history, humankind has prospered without them. As late as 1900, there were only 18 central banks globally. 1 Just over a century later, speakers at the Bank of ... (full story)