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My Lords, Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Brewery for UK Finance's second annual industry dinner. And a particular welcome to our guest speaker The Rt Hon David Liddington, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and to John Glen, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. Two people with whom we have close relationships and for whom we have high regard - as they repeatedly demonstrate an understanding of the needs of our sector and are prepared to stand up and speak for it.

I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our sponsors, EY, for once again supporting us this evening.

UK Finance was born some 18 months ago - combining most of the activities of our six predecessor trade associations.

We have established a new type of trade association - one which represents, and is responsive to, the needs of our wide-ranging membership - from the largest banks to the building societies ?

? mid-size, smaller members and regional firms ?

? cards and payment businesses, asset backed lenders and specialists, challengers and fintech companies.

With a board of CEOs, representing the industry with the capability to deliver their organisations on our agreed priorities.

And an operating style which seeks to quietly influence government and regulators with robust advocacy and evidence-based arguments.

Stephen and I also wanted UK Finance to understand, and be responsive to, the needs of the customers of our members and society as a whole, not just our members.

Which is why our board also includes independently minded senior executives reflecting the interests of those customers - consumers and small businesses - and looks at subjects like economic crime, ethics, diversity and financial inclusion.

Board members like Joanna Elson, the Chief Executive of the Money Advice Trust and an expert in those struggling with debt. Tracey McDermott, a former Chief Executive of the FCA who leads on economic crime. And Lord Macpherson, a former Permanent Secretary to the Treasury who pulls no punches and has been invaluable on many fronts not least Brexit. And as she leaves the Board, let me pay tribute to Jayne-Ann Ghadia who brought her characteristic independent view on diversity and other subjects to the Board. Having built a great business, she has moved on post the takeover of Virgin Money, and we wish her well in whatever she decides to do next.

It's certainly been a busy year. Putting to one side Brexit, to which I will inevitably return later.

We brought the industry together to respond rapidly and effectively to the collapse of Carillion and Monarch ?

? our Consumer Credit Taskforce drove improvements to how customers engage with their Personal Current Account

? we have developed 'screen scraping? guidelines in coordination with, and at the request of, the FCA, ahead of the introduction of Open Banking ?

? we developed a new service enabling people to report the death of an individual to multiple financial services providers at the same time ?

? we established a commitment to support thousands of previously ineligible homeowners who are tied to mortgage reversion rates in switching products ?

? we influenced the development of the MiFID II taping regime and the final Basel III framework ?

? and we have supported the development of a draft voluntary code on Authorised Push Payment scams ?

? while the Banking Protocol - a rapid scam response scheme between branch staff and law enforcement - has prevented over £31 million of fraud and led to 240 arrests. And led to the first letters of thanks ever received by a banking trade body from numerous Chief Constables ?

? and the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit, a specialist police unit sponsored by the finance industry, prevented £25m of fraud and carried out 84 arrests and interviews under caution in the first half of 2018.

Central to all of this is our aim to support members in ensuring the UK retains its position as a global leader in financial services.

And to help us achieve that goal, the industry is taking on responsibility for areas that traditionally have been the role of the public and third sectors.

Addressing key issues like consumer vulnerability and economic crime.

Just a week ago, we launched a Code of Practice for industry to support victims of financial abuse, so firms can improve how they identify those at risk and help them regain control of their money.

Right now, UK Finance is hosting over 20 colleagues from the Home Office and working hand in glove with the National Crime Agency to reform the anti-money laundering system known as Suspicious Activity Reports or SARs.

At the moment, banks spend over £5 billion per year fighting economic crime.

The system generates 20 million alerts, all of which need investigating, involving costly human intervention - this leads to 400,000 reports to the National Crime Agency, many of which are low value in terms of intelligence and information.

It's clear the system isn't working properly - so the review will ensure it's refined to meet the needs of crime agencies, regulators, consumers and businesses by better identifying and targeting serious organised crime. Ultimately working toward our objective of making London the safest and most transparent place to conduct financial business in the world post Brexit.

Of course our industry directly and indirectly provides employment for millions.

It is amongst the largest of UK sectors and represents one of our world class industries.

And whilst it is right that as a result we are the largest sector in terms of tax contribution, so funding our public services ?

? contributions which total more than the budgets of the Home Office and the Department for Transport combined, which means that there can be NO debate about whether we pay at least our fair share of tax, unlike some other sectors

We have therefore been pushing for an annual benchmarking to show how, when you add up corporation tax, the bank levy and irrecoverable VAT, our overall sector tax burden could result in the UK becoming internationally uncompetitive. If we wish to continue to attract overseas banks to have regional headquarters here post Brexit, given the other disadvantages the loss of passporting will create, we need to keep a careful eye on our international competitiveness.

This could be misinterpreted as the bankers asking for tax cuts - NO, what I am asking for is to see independent evidence to counter the arguments of those who threaten to INCREASE taxes on banks which would lessen our ability to fund business growth and retain our international competitiveness.

And the finance sector's outsized tax contribution must also be seen in the context of all the work we are doing, resources we are committing and money we are spending on work which has traditionally been funded by the public sector - particularly in combating economic crime

We have also been pushing for regulators to review whether the regulations applied to mid-tier banks post Brexit are proportionate or whether we could usefully follow the US precedent of a different system for smaller institutions.

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It's not just customers in the UK whom the finance industry supports.

Last year UK exports of financial services reached a record high of almost £60 billion.

That's more than a fifth of our country's total services exports.

So just as British steel helped to build the world, UK Finance's 300 members are funding our growth and the growth of our major trading partners.

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But March 2019 and the deadline for our departure from the EU is approaching all too fast.

It will be a damning indictment of Europe's political system, though not a scenario I think we will see, if we end up with ?no deal?. Philip Hammond said ?we must get foursquare behind the Prime Minister as she seeks to find a deal with the EU that can be put before Parliament for scrutiny?. I personally could not agree more.

I am strongly of the view that the downside risks to a worst case ?no deal? are underestimated by many.

Just last month UBS, in one of many similar reports including the Bank of England's, warned that a hard ?no deal? scenario would result in an output loss of 10 per cent of GDP over a five-year period. That to me is an unacceptable outcome and will hit the least able to cope worst but does not, it seems, matter to those who have a fixation with Brexit at any cost.

So I wish the Prime Minister well as she embarks on potentially the most difficult of her European summits.

On a most positive note, I am just as certain that whatever the outcome of the Brexit negotiations, the UK will remain a world-leading financial centre. A lot has changed since I wrote the report ?London winning in the decade ahead? 10 year ago.

But a lot of things haven't changed. We have many natural advantages that will be unaffected by any Brexit deal ?

? our time zone and language - our heritage

? our world revered judicial and legal system, tax regime and competitive employment laws ?

? our deep talent pool, respected regulatory framework and national infrastructure

Our world class universities, education system and research base

Our amazing talent for innovation and creativity

Our open and diverse society

Our vibrant cultural and artistic base

Combined, these characteristics make a formidable attraction to international businesses and attract the best people in the world to live in the best country in the world - and will continue to do so if we nurture them.

Our finance and asset management industries are inextricably linked, £9 trillion of assets papered and managed under English-law contracts result in the UK being the second-largest asset management centre in the world. We must defend asset management as hard as we defend financial services.

I never cease to be impressed by the level of creativity and innovation in the UK - and in our financial sector in particular. Whether it be from the incumbents or the fintech challengers or in my personal experience youngsters who eschew what we might have done. Forget the 2 or 3 year training scheme with a large bank. I want to start my own business!

So it's no surprise that in addition to our UK based banking giants, which dominate Europe's financial sector, over a third of Europe's unicorn status tech firms - those with a one-billion-dollar value - are from the UK.

And in addition to the huge investments made by our incumbent banks and the incredible innovation we are seeing from them, fintech investment into the UK from abroad - some $16 billion last year - surpassed that of not just Sweden, Portugal and Germany - all of whom have great fintech centres which are giving us a run for our money - but, please note, also exceeded that of overseas investment into the US in the first half of this year.

Many of these exciting new developments are from UK Finance members. Atom, Monzo and Starling have all joined us recently.

So I have no doubt the UK will continue to thrive in a technology-driven world. Don't let the doom sayers tell you otherwise. The country that invented the telephone, the computer, the internet - and of course our biggest export product, roundabouts - will not be bowed by Brexit.

But of course, the speed and scale of digital transformation we are experiencing creates new risks.

The serious daily reality of cyber-attack from organised and sophisticated criminals and state actors is real and never far from the headlines.

A financial system which is recognised globally to be amongst the most resilient to these threats will continue to attract and retain international businesses.

That's why UK Finance is working closely with our members, the Bank of England, GCHQ and the National Cyber Security Centre to address this clear and present danger.

Just last week, we convened a group of senior industry cyber executives at Wilton Park, the Foreign Office's secure location, to show and tell the emerging risks they are seeing on a daily basis and discuss how we could better combat them. UK Finance was mandated to create a new Financial Services Cyber Collaboration Centre, capable of addressing cyber threats as they emerge in a faster, more coordinated and effective way. Taking the practice of the best to a wider group of smaller institutions. Exactly the kind of initiative Stephen and I see as the most value-added that UK Finance can facilitate.

We have a similarly major project looking at the potential to create a digital identity utility - intended to cut the huge cost of Know Your Client procedures, give customers a more convenient and less duplicative process and really stop fraud.

It is through projects like this that we can deliver the vision I outlined earlier - for the UK to be the safest and most transparent place in the world to conduct financial services business.

We will provide critical service and support to consumers in the management of their finances; fund the growth of small, medium size and big businesses; and provide the taxes to pay for a large part of our public services. So don't believe what you hear from some. Why is it in the UK we always have to talk down our biggest successes? The UK financial services sector is alive and kicking, innovating, paying more than its fair share of taxes, working hand in glove with regulators and law enforcement agencies to tackle exponentially growing economic crime and cyber threats, becoming more and more responsive to its societal responsibilities to look after the financially excluded, financially stressed and vulnerable. We are and will remain one of the UK's world class industries whatever the outcome of Brexit ?

Thank you for coming tonight, and for your support and contributions throughout the year. Thank you to the whole UK Finance team for their superlative efforts during this busy and difficult period. Stephen and I look forward to serving you and delivering on our key priorities as the industry we represent provides the fire power to take us forward to a brighter future.