Chris Salmon: Keeping up with fast markets

Speech by Mr Chris Salmon, Executive Director for Markets of the Bank of England, at the 13th Annual Central Bank Conference on the Microstructure of Financial Markets, London, 6 October 2017.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Good morning and welcome to the second day of our conference.  Yesterday we heard from Richard Payne's session on the subject of algorithmic trading - a key development in market structure, enabled by the greater prevalence of electronic trading.  This morning I want to step back a little further and look at the broader implications of the moves toward more electronic and automated trading.

One phenomenon this has given rise to - and perhaps the element which has most captured the public imagination - is the series of 'flash' events which have occurred over recent years (Chart 1).