| Sir David Walker |
Just which place could Sir David Walker have been talking about when he described a country as “Wogga Wogga”?
Sir David, senior adviser to Morgan Stanley International, made the remark while answering questions at the launch of the G30’s report on global clearing and settlement at the Bank of England last month.
After much talk of how the world’s more sophisticated markets of North America, Europe and parts of Asia were pulling together to achieve a utopian dream of a unified global system for clearing and settlement, enabling market players to overcome all systemic and regulatory hurdles, questions turned to how less-developed markets might join in.
“Over time, if you think of Wogga Wogga or parts of Asia, then they may want to change their systems to bring them in line with global standards,” said Sir David. “They may not see it as important in the short term but over the longer term it will become more important.”
He might, of course, have been referring to Wagga Wagga in New South Wales, Australia, but the context suggested otherwise. And Australia surely counts itself among the world’s more developed nations.
If you closed your eyes and allowed the mind to drift, you could conjure yourself away from the conference centre of the Bank to a different place and time when knights of the realm frequently referred to Johnny Foreigner as a fuzzy-wuzzy from Bongo-Bongo Land.
It’s enlightening to see that the 21st century hasn’t yet completely penetrated the walls of one of Britain’s most venerable institutions.
