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environment, in which we have been engaged with our friends at the Department of Trade and Industry for some eighteen months. At the beginning of this enterprise, neither of us foresaw the pitfalls of designing a conceptual structure which both creates a new legal environment and at the same time results in a workable and reliable system. As I speak, we have not yet reached a final agreement but that moment is rapidly approaching. The necessary regulations are expected to be laid before Parliament and voted upon before the end of the year.
There should be no doubt of the importance with which we regard this project. We are fully aware that our position in a competitive world depends on modernising our settlement system. Taurus is not the end of the process. It is the platform from which we can move on to achieve rolling settlement and many other goals.
My Lord Mayor, we are still running hard, and I have tried to set out some idea of the course ahead. There are still hurdles
As I to jump and perhaps the odd water-jump to take as well. said earlier, my Lord Mayor, we are in front; and we mean to stay there. I and my colleagues are determined that we will continue to provide to the utmost of our ability the services, the regulation, the leadership and the support which all those who make up the securities industry - many of them here tonight
are entitled to expect. May I now propose the traditional
toast.
"THE BANKERS AND MERCHANTS OF THE CITY OF LONDON AND THE HEALTH OF THE GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND".