Victoria Cleland: Payments - diversity matters

Speech by Ms Victoria Cleland, Executive Director for Banking, Payments and Innovation of the Bank of England, at the European Women Payments Network Annual Conference, Amsterdam, 5 June 2019.

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

I am delighted to be speaking today at the European Women Payments Network (EWPN) Annual Conference. Amsterdam, as home to what is reputedly the world's oldest stock exchange, founded in 16021, is an apt location to discuss payments. While people's fundamental requirements when exchanging value probably have not changed very much since then, the choice of how people make payments, and the technology which facilitates this, certainly has.

Such changes can only come about through listening to what is needed and harnessing innovation. How much more quickly would these changes have come about if EWPN had been around a few centuries ago? EWPN's focus is 'making diversity matter in fintech', by building a community for women and by championing a more diverse and inclusive payments industry for all. In keeping with this, I want to set out how, through the lens of our work in payments, we are embracing the changes that fintech can bring and why diversity matters to the Bank of England.