Mais Lecture
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The Mais Lecture has been hosted since 1978, on a mostly annual basis, by Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), part of City, University of London.[1]
The lecture is named in honour of Lord Mais, the 645th Lord Mayor of the City of London (1972–73), and Pro-Chancellor of City University (1979–84). He played a key role in establishing City University's Centre of Excellence for Banking and Finance, now the Centre for Banking Research, part of the wider Bayes Faculty of Finance.
The lecture is regarded as a leading event for the banking and finance community of the City of London, having hosted a number of prestigious speakers including successive Prime Ministers, Chancellors of the Exchequer, and Governors of the Bank of England, and notably the forum in which successive Chancellors and Shadow Chancellors have set out their economic philosophy and policies.
Notable milestones
In January 2021 Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, became the first woman to deliver the Mais Lecture.
In March 2026 Rachel Reeves, delivered an unprecedented second Mais Lecture – almost precisely two years to the day after her first – this time as Chancellor, having been Shadow Chancellor at the time of her first. In a further family connection, her husband, Nicholas Joicey, was speechwriter for Gordon Brown when the Chancellor delivered his Mais Lecture in 1999.[2]
Eight of the 15 Chancellors since its inception have delivered a Mais Lecture, including all three Labour Chancellors.[3]
While three Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom have delivered the Mais Lecture, Tony Blair is the only one who was neither Chancellor nor Shadow Chancellor when he did so.[4]
Mark Carney delivered his Mais Lecture in 2014, while he was Governor of the Bank of England, he subsequently became Prime Minister of Canada in 2025.[5]
List of Mais Lectures
| Lecture | Date | Delivered by | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 9 Feb 1978 | Gordon Richardson | Reflections on the Conduct of Monetary Policy[6] |
| Second | Nov 1979 | Lionel Robbins | Objectives of Monetary Policy: Past and Present |
| Third | May 1981 | Geoffrey Howe | The Fight Against Inflation |
| Fourth | Mar 1983 | Friedrich Hayek | Science and Ethics |
| Fifth | 18 Jun 1984 | Nigel Lawson | The British Experiment[7][8][9] |
| Sixth | May 1986 | Roy Jenkins | The International Finance Scene: Can Sense be Plucked Out of Danger |
| Seventh | May 1987 | Robin Leigh-Pemberton | The Instruments of Monetary Policy |
| Eighth | May 1988 | Michel Camdessus | The IMF in a Changing World |
| Ninth | May 1989 | Samuel Brittan | A Restatement of Economic Liberalism |
| Tenth | May 1990 | Gordon Pepper | Monetary Policy: A Post-Mortem and Proposal |
| Eleventh | May 1992 | Erik Hoffmeyer [da] | Economic and Monetary Union: The Case for Central Bank Independence |
| Twelfth | Jun 1993 | Peter Lilley | Benefits and Costs: Securing and Future of Social Security |
| Thirteenth | May 1994 | Kenneth Clarke | The Changing World of Work in the 1990s |
| Fourteenth | 22 May 1995 | Tony Blair | The Economic Framework for New Labour[10][9] |
| Fifteenth | Oct 1996 | Michael Heseltine | Achieving Competitiveness in a Global Economy |
| Sixteenth | 24 Jun 1997 | Edward George | Monetary Policy in Britain and Europe[11][12] |
| Seventeenth | May 1998 | Hans Tietmeyer | Financial and Monetary Integration: Benefits, Opportunities, and Pitfalls |
| Eighteenth | 19 Oct 1999 | Gordon Brown | The Conditions for Full Employment[13] |
| Nineteenth | May 2000 | Jonathan Sacks | Markets, Governments, and Virtues |
| Twentieth | May 2001 | Valery Giscard d'Estaing | The New European Debate: The Euro-zone and the Greater Europe |
| Twenty-first | Apr 2003 | Ernst Welteke | Reflections on European Monetary Policy[14] |
| Twenty-second | 12 May 2004 | Otmar Issing | The Euro: the First Five Years[15] |
| Twenty-third | 17 May 2005 | Mervyn King | Monetary Policy: Practice Ahead of Theory[16][17][18] |
| Twenty-fourth | 29 Oct 2008 | Alistair Darling | Chancellor Reveals His Plans to Maintain Economic Stability[19][20][21][22] |
| Twenty-fifth | 13 May 2009 | Axel A. Weber | Reflections on the Financial Crisis[23] |
| Twenty-sixth | 24 Feb 2010 | George Osborne | A New Economic Model[24][25][26][27][28][29][30] |
| Twenty-seventh | 13 Jul 2011 | Paul Volcker | The World of Finance and the National Interest[31][32][33] |
| Twenty-eighth | 8 May 2012 | Patrick Honohan | The Experience of Financial Integration – Ireland, Britain, Europe[34][35][36] |
| Twenty-ninth | 18 Mar 2014 | Mark Carney | One Mission. One Bank. Promoting the Good of the People of the United Kingdom.[37][38][39] |
| Thirtieth | 7 Oct 2015 | Olivier Blanchard | Rethinking Macro (Stabilisation) Policy[40][41][42] |
| Thirty-first | 12 Jun 2017 | Brian Griffiths | Restoring Trust in the Banking System[43][44][45][46][47][48] |
| Thirty-second | 29 Oct 2018 | José Manuel Barroso | The European Union and the Changing International Landscape[49][50] |
| Thirty-third | 13 Jan 2021 | Anneliese Dodds | The challenges of the post-Covid, post-Brexit UK economy – a response [delivered virtually][51][52][53][54] |
| Thirty-fourth | 24 Feb 2022 | Rishi Sunak | A new culture of enterprise[55][56][57] |
| Thirty-fifth | 5 Jun 2023 | Odile Renaud-Basso | How to green the global economy[58][59][60] |
| Thirty-sixth | 19 Mar 2024 | Rachel Reeves | Economic Growth in an Age of Insecurity[61][62][63][64][65] |
| Thirty-seventh | 27 Mar 2025 | Isabel Schnabel | Financial literacy and monetary policy transmission[66][67][68][69] |
| Thirty-eighth | 17 Mar 2025 | Rachel Reeves | The Active and Strategic State[70][71] |