christian noyer : a founder ’ s perspective on the euro as a global currency speech by mr christian noyer, governor of the bank of france, at the joint conference “ the euro at ten : the next global currency? ”, sponsored by the peterson institute for international economics and bruegel, peterson institute for international economics, washington dc, 10 october 2008. * * * good afternoon. it is a great pleasure to be here today with so many friends and colleagues to celebrate ten years of the euro as a global currency. i must confess this is not exactly my idea of a quiet and peaceful anniversary. when i was privileged to be designated as ecb's first vice president, i would never have imagined that i would be sitting now, as a member of the governing council, dealing with the worst financial crisis in the last eighty years. actually, one of the main gratification of the job during the crisis has been the quality of our collective interaction and deliberation in the governing council, based on our willingness, in very challenging circumstances, to share judgments and exchange views in a spirit of friendship and mutual respect. i am very proud to be part of such a group. together, we have been able to make quick decisions and adjust flexibly to fast changing environment, without ever giving up on our mandate and our mission. obviously, the euro area, like the rest of the industrialised world, is going through a very rough patch. we can only imagine what would be the situation if we still had fifteen different currencies, with so many bilateral exchange rates potentially as volatile as other asset prices currently are. that single thought experiment is enough to show how much europe benefits from having a single, truly global, currency. two days ago, we took two very important decisions. first, in an unprecedented move concerted with all major central banks, we decreased our policy rate by 50 basis points. then, in a separate deliberation, we further adjusted our liquidity provision framework. i will spare you the technicalities. suffice it to say that, as a result, banks will have regular access, against collateral, to unlimited amount of liquidity at the policy rate i. e. 3. 75 % ; this, at least until the end of january 2009. let me briefly comment on those two decisions. first, on liquidity provision. since the crisis broke out, central banks have tried and restore an orderly functioning of money markets. even when modali

christian noyer : fostering economic growth in europe introduction by mr christian noyer, governor of the bank of france and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, for the round table 3 : bank of france financial stability review “ financing the economy : new avenues for growth ”, at the paris europlace international financial forum, paris, 20 april 2015. * * * ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of this third round table is to launch the latest issue of the banque de france financial stability review entitled “ financing the economy : new avenues for growth ” and which basically discusses the need for more market – based financing. i am thrilled to exchange views over this particularly topical issue today in a country that shifted towards market - financing a long time ago and which has a lot to tell us. in the united states, 80 % of debt financing takes place in capital markets whereas this proportion is only 20 % in the eurozone. this new edition of our fsr, just like previous ones, brings together contributions from prominent academics, practitioners and policy - makers from all over the world. i warmly thank all the contributors. i cannot mention all of them but sheila bair and barbara novick among others are with us today. these contributions are very diverse, or even divergent, in their analysis and proposals. this is precisely how we want it to be. it is clear that we don ’ t necessarily share the views expressed in the articles but we believe in exchanging ideas. all in all, this new fsr underlines three main aspects with respect to financing the economy : – the regulatory drivers have and will continue to have an important bearing on market participants ’ behavior and strategies. – the transition towards a more balanced financing pattern needs to be supported by public intervention. – there is still a lot to do in order to drain resources more effectively and ensure a sufficient flow of long - term financing, which is a prerequisite for recovery and growth. before we get into the discussion, let me briefly share with you some personal thoughts in this regard. in my view, the challenges to finance the economy are mainly two - fold : – on the one hand, some segments of the economy, namely smes and infrastructures, rely heavily on bank - financing, due to the existence of high fixed costs and significant information asymmetries. indeed, banks are better equipped to assess the credit - worthiness of such counterparties or projects. facing this situation requires to unlock bank lending