Our regular contributor Una Riley arrived at the ‘Old Lady of Threadneedle Street’ to interview Victoria Cleland, the first woman to be appointed as the Head of Notes division at the Bank of England. Una writes:
I have been lucky enough in the past to have a tour of the bank and delight in its historic and traditional glory. The Bank of England was founded in 1694 to act as the Government’s banker and debt-manager. Since then its role has developed and evolved, centred on the management of the nation’s currency and its position at the centre of the UK’s financial system. It was nationalised in March 1946, and in 1997 it was granted operational independence to set monetary policy. The events and circumstances that have occurred over the past three hundred years have shaped and influenced the role and responsibilities of the Bank; none more so than in the 21st century.
The financial crisis demonstrated the need for a new approach to financial regulation and major changes to the Bank came into force in April 2013. Victoria Cleland has based her career in banking and specifically at the Bank, covering a range of roles including: oversight of payment and settlement systems, financing of small businesses, graduate recruitment, Private Secretary to the Deputy Governor and immediately prior to joining Notes Division, Deputy Head of the Special Resolution Unit. Victoria has a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford and an MBA from Imperial College London. In her time at the Bank of England she has already witnessed many changes and the aforementioned financial crisis where she was at the centre of issues working on the resolution of Northern Rock. She set up the ‘special resolutions’ unit to deal with failing banks. Now as Head of Notes Division she is leading the teams with responsibility for all of the Bank’s involvement in banknotes from design to distribution; and security. Banknotes themselves and their role in society have undergone continual change. From today’s perspective, it is easy to accept that a piece of paper that costs a few pence to produce is worth five, ten, 20 or 50 pounds. But just think about it, what other product would you pay less for than its core worth?
Therefore the gaining and maintaining of public confidence in the currency is a key role of the Bank. and one which is essential to the proper functioning of the economy. The role is huge and multifaceted. I wanted to know more. I asked her to talk about her role. She said: “I took over this role in March 2010 and I am the second person to become the Head of Notes. The division was created in the early 2000’s and the first person to hold the role was Lee Dobney.” Cleland explained that she had always been interested in the role and outlined the internal advertisement process, how she had decided to apply for the role and after all the procedures had been completed along with a couple of interviews; had been appointed. Cleland also explained in depth the job functions of the various other roles that she has held within the Bank of England and how each one was diverse and interesting in its own right and went on: “The way that the bank works is that we tend to rotate jobs so although I pretty much joined the bank from university I have done a lot of very different things since then. Some of it looking at finances of small businesses and supervising gilt-edge market makers, payment systems and working as the deputy governor’s private secretary. I was then quite heavily involved with the Northern Rock bank resolution, so a real range of things. I had never worked in the Notes Division but it was always something that I thought ‘I like the look of that’. It is like a slight case of musical chairs … is it the right job at the right level and at the right time? Then the job of Head of Notes came up and I thought ‘Yes, that is what I want to do’. So as soon as I knew Lee was likely to be retiring I was thinking ‘Yes, I’d like to try’.
I asked what had attracted her to the job was it the creative side being involved with the design … what exactly was the attraction. Cleland smiled and said: “I think it is the sheer variety that the job covers and also it’s such a tangible thing and so important. Pretty much everyone who comes into the Bank of England thinks of banknotes so it’s being part of what is important to the public where you can make a difference and at the end of the day you can say that we have printed these notes and this is what they look like…so it is sometimes easier to measure what you have done”.
The public certainly got involved with the recent choice of featuring Jane Austen on the ten pound note (within a year of the Churchill £5 note, which is targeted for issue during 2016) which has caused quite a stir. Prior to the conformation of these notes by the Governor of the Bank of England in July, there had been a lot of controversy about the choice. While Jane Austen is one of the country’s most celebrated authors the choice has been widely debated. On Twitter a woman who campaigned for the Jane Austen note received death threats. Co-founder of the Women’s Room, Caroline Criado-Perez faced a deluge of hostile tweets. This resulted in MPs and celebrities campaigning to urge Twitter to develop a button to allow users to report abuse. On the day that the Governor of the Bank of England announced the conformation of the note even the Chancellor tweeted out: “Mark Carney’s choice of Jane Austen as face of £10 note is great. After understandable row over lack of women, shows sense and sensibility.” Who would have thought that Jane Austin would have brought about Twitter reform? The crazy thing is that the choice has ended up as a feminist issue and when you think that the bank itself is known fondly as the Old Lady and the Queen appears on more denominations than any man … it seems to have taken away from the original good choice of a hugely popular author that will resonate with the public. It is certainly an interesting job that could never be described as dull.
We went on to talk about notes and Cleland said: “We brought in a new fifty pound note in 2011 and I was involved in that. By the time I had joined the division the characters had been announced but I was involved in choosing the security features and the production. In a way producing bank notes is like manufacturing, you produce millions of bank notes so you have to make sure that you have your beautiful design that can be replicated in mass production and how that works. I am also involved with the liaison with the cash industry to ensure that they are ready to bring in notes as it is very important that any machines that dispense notes such as ATMs, check-outs, sorting machines are all prepared by launch day to recognise the note and security features. So there is a huge logistics exercise with the cash industry as a whole. Also the educational aspect is very important to ensure that the public, retailers and the police understand how to identify genuine notes. Therefore, as part of the launch we issued a new sets of educational materials that I was involved in writing. “
I asked her to expand upon the security aspects. She said: “There are a number of security aspects, including the actual security features within the notes themselves…trying to make the notes as secure as possible. I have a team of scientists and one of their roles is monitoring the latest security features available and seeing how robust they are against counterfeiting. Another side is more the physical integrity of the banks stocks of notes and the print works where the notes are produced. Also the bank has a role in overlooking the cash centres of the main circulation scheme members. So there is security of the note itself and physical security” Cleland explained how her team works closely with Don Randall, the Bank’s head of security and his team identifying security levels from systems to intelligence. The wider world of security reaches everywhere from the pound in your pocket to almost every aspect of your life.
Video
Victoria Cleland talks about the process for producing a new banknote
A short video of Victoria Cleland, Head of Notes Division, describing the process leading up to the launch of a new banknote.
Watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv6bE-InSPQ
