The idea for a new banking journal was first mentioned at a lunch between myself and two old colleagues, William Clarke and George Bull, at the Reform Club, London on January 10, 1986. The following month, I wrote a three-page memorandum outlining the case for a publication about central banking. Pointing to the growing role of central banks in the world economy, I said they faced “new challenges to their roles as regulators and supervisors”, and that these would in future “enormously complicate