finance, energy, and the like. Economics is favor ing the scale players, so there is also this race for scale. It’s a fascinating time, but at the end of the day, it’s important to make sure you’re relevant for what the world is going to be in a few years’ time. EK : You would also have one of the greatest views of how economies feel across the world. How do you see overall economic movement, and what keeps you up at night? JF : The world has been remarkably resilient. Between COVID, conflicts, and then the policy changes, the speed of adaptation has been remarkable. A lot of large companies have been able to navigate this incredibly well without it being highly detrimental because they’ve got diversity. I think the ones who’ve paid a heavier price have been the smaller compa nies—the fourth-tier suppliers or smaller retailers— who don’t have the diversity or adaptability. One of the things we’re keeping an eye on is the fiscal situation of many countries. You’ve got almost “emerging-market-like” risks being applied to devel oped markets. In an emerging market, there are more constraints, whereas in a developed market, things can become systemic and problematic for everyone—quickly. Fiscal dominance and the inter twining of monetary and fiscal policy is one of the big long-term economic watch items. Affordability’s another one you’ve got to keep an eye on. It’s a lot more expensive today—for a lot more people—to have a good quality of life. That can come through in housing, dissatisfaction with standards of living, and ultimately in how people vote. I think affordabil ity will bite different countries at different points. Otherwise, in the shorter term, there’s probably another shoe to drop in tariffs; the labor market has held up well, but it’s showing some signs of softening; asset prices are high at the moment, and there’s a lot of money flowing around in some concentrated opportunities. As a bank, one is always mindful of cyber and geopolitical threats disrupting the payments network, security network, infrastructure, or other elements. We’ve got a lot of heightened risks there. We can work our way through them, but they’re certainly not fun when they happen. So overall, it’s seat belts on for 2026. - - - - -