benchmarks for investors, and is likely to increase their confidence in the mechanisms associated with crypto assets and thus promote their development. b. in the longer term, the objective should be to strengthen capital to finance innovation in an economy close to the “ technological frontier ", as is the case in france, the key to growth lies in business innovation, and therefore in equity financing in the long term : as innovation is more risky, financing it must yield greater rewards. however, in france, household savings are only modestly invested in equity products, and this is reflected in corporate financing. [ slide 2 ] there is a significant contrast between the united states and france, where corporate equity accounts for 122 % and 77 % of gdp respectively. from this point of view, france is not different from the rest of the euro area with the exception of germany ( 80 % ). what are the solutions? at the national level, the pacte act proposes certain advances in life insurance, which is by far french households ’ leading form of financial savings ( eur 1, 700 billion at end - 2018 ), in particular to promote the euro - growth fund by making it simpler and more understandable for savers and to increase insurers ’ investment in innovation financing. the french authorities are also very careful that the current review of the solvency ii directive is favourable to the long - term investment of insurers in equities. at the european level [ slide 3 ], we need to build a real “ financing union for investment and innovation ” to better steer our resources – a savings surplus of eur 345 billion in the euro area5 – towards equity and innovation. this financing union must bring together and amplify existing initiatives, the capital markets union, the banking union and the juncker investment plan. i would now like to answer my second question : is the diversification of sources of financing sufficient? from my point of view, the answer is no because diversification carries risks that need to be well managed. ii. diversifying sources of financing is a complex business whose success requires 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches managing all the traditional and new risks faced by intermediaries a. first, there are the risks linked to fast - growing private sector debt corporate debt in france is growing much faster than in the rest of europe [ slide 4 ]. we are now significantly above the euro area average. this raises the question of the sustainability of this debt, and of the impact of an

/ third, the credibility of the eurosystem rests, fundamentally, on its stability - oriented monetary policy strategy. i would like to allay the fears and doubts expressed by some observers as regards the clarity of our monetary policy strategy. the maastricht treaty has given us a mandate for maintaining price stability. we have decided to be as clear and as transparent as possible by announcing a clear definition of price stability, featuring a year - on - year increase in the harmonised index of consumer prices for the euro area of below 2 %. to reach that goal we have based our monetary policy on two “ pillars ”. as regards the first “ pillar ” we have set up a quantitative reference value, namely 4. 5 %, for the growth of the broad monetary aggregate m3 ; last december, we have confirmed this rate of growth of 4, 5 % as an important factor for stabilising expectations. it should be noted that the concept of a reference value does not imply a commitment on the part of the eurosystem to mechanistically correct deviations in monetary growth in the short term. however, the reference value for m3 is consistent with, and helps to maintain price stability over the medium term. the second pillar of the monetary policy strategy is a very comprehensive set of indicators that are important in our eyes in signalling future price developments in the euro area. this strategy, which ensures a great deal of continuity with the monetary policies of the participating national central banks, appears to have been understood by financial markets and the public at large. in particular, the yields on long - term bonds denominated in euros indicate clearly that the eurosystem has kept intact the legacy of credibility that it has inherited. d / finally, the credibility of the euro also results from the eurosystem ’ s constant efforts towards transparency and communication. i must stress here that the eurosystem is one of the most transparent central banks in the world. once a month, immediately after the meeting of the governing council, the president of the ecb holds a press conference - which starts with a precise exposition of the diagnosis of the governing council which is immediately made available in real time on the ecb website. this will be the case when we will meet next wednesday in frankfurt. it is extremely important to stress that the eurosystem was the first in the world to introduce, on the 1st january 1999, the concept of regular, frequent, real - time transparency in the domain of monetary policy. this