European figures are similar. Next generations solutions may begin to emerge to protect payments thanks to the works of the industry –I am thinking about the recent launch of dynamic cryptograms for example, as well as the use of biometrics–, but they also require time and action by the regulators. In this context, the adoption of the reviewed Payment Services Directive in December 2015 represents a major achievement. This Directive will considerably reinforce the security of payments and related services by setting in hard law and at the European level the obligation to use strong customer authentication for electronic payment transactions or payment account access. This Directive also extends the scope of the European regulatory framework to new activities such as payment initiation or account information services. In this respect, it is a duty for public authorities to ensure level playing field between all market players, traditional actors or newcomers, through an overarching key principle: regulate according to the risk profile of the service, not according to the nature or status of the provider. Banque de France has been, amongst European public authorities, a trailblazer on these security issues since the creation of the Observatory for Payment Card Security in 2001. This institution, chaired by the Governor of Banque de France since its inception, has anticipated and addressed through its works many of the challenges raised by new technologies, such as the security of remote or contactless payments or the use of biometrics as an authentication tool.

-  Third, the absence of a fiscal union has meant that the policy response has been lacking, especially in the presence of a monetary policy dealing with the zero lower bound of interest rates. Furthermore, doubts about the long term fiscal position of certain Eurozone countries, such as Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain, increased to unsustainable levels their sovereign risk premia and their public and private sector borrowing costs. What has been the policy response within the EU? The EU crisis management policy aimed to contain and overcome its effects, but, to a large extent, it has been conditioned by some of the constraints I mentioned before. Monetary policy took the lead in providing countercyclical stimulus to the economy, with the ECB rapidly lowering its policy rate and injecting huge amounts of short and long term liquidity. Lastly, the announcement in September of the Outright Monetary Transactions by the ECB has been a turning point in regaining the trust of the financial markets. On the other hand, given the lack of space for stimulating fiscal policies, the public sector has been more interested in controlling long-term public debt trajectories, subtracting rather than adding to economic stimulus. To this end, the agreed fiscal compact and macroeconomic surveillance policies aim to put the Eurozone public finances into a sound and credible longterm footing. On the financial side, the EU has revised its financial architecture by establishing the EFSF (European Financial Stability Fund) and European Stability Mechanism, by agreeing to establish a single banking system supervisor.