ABSTRACT
I am particularly pleased to speak before this eminent forum and to have the opportunity of addressing the topic ‘Technology and Finance’ from a central banker’s point of view.
Technology and the challenges it raises for financial markets is a most appropriate theme for this colloquium. On the one hand, technology is closely intertwined with the evolution of many other factors affecting financial markets and so allows coverage of a wide range of issues. On the other hand, it has farreaching consequences for all market participants, and this certainly includes central banks. In the first part I propose to briefly recall how technology has impacted on our macroeconomic and regulatory environment. In the next two parts I would like to sketch the main consequences of these developments on what my colleagues at the Bank of England have described as the two wings of central banking, i.e. monetary and financial stability.
