denis beau : staying the course through stormy weather - confidence to support innovation speech by mr denis beau, first deputy governor of the bank of france, at the fintech r : evolution 2023, paris, 19 october 2023. * * * ladies and gentlemen, first of all, i would like to start by thanking the france fintech association and its president alain clot for inviting me to participate again in this major event for the french fintech ecosystem. the current environment is clearly less conducive to fundraising for start - ups. this turbulence in the fintech ecosystem reflects the recent deterioration in the economic and financial environment. indeed, the euro area economy has been affected by an unprecedented series of shocks. these shocks, associated in particular with russia's unjustifiable war in ukraine and the lockdown in china, have resulted in a slowdown in growth and an acceleration in inflation. however, in france, this phenomenon, known as " slow - flation ", has not yet turned into " stagflation ", or a recession. according to our most recent projections, economic activity in our country should grow at a moderate rate in 2023, before recovering in 2024 and 2025. in other words, the central scenario of our projection is that the french economy will gradually recover from inflation without falling into recession, even though the economic slowdown will be marked. although times are gloomy, there is every reason to remain confident about the medium - term outlook. and i would like to tell you this morning that trust is built day by day, on the one hand by consolidating the foundations to strengthen the resilience of the ecosystem, and on the other hand by anticipating the future to develop an efficient and innovative financial sector based on sound fundamentals. * * * i / consolidating the foundations means preparing as well as possible for the many operational risks that fintechs face, and which will be subject to more stringent regulation in the near future. 1 / cyber risk is a good example of such risks, and of the need to be prepared. the european financial sector is increasingly being targeted by cyber - attacks, and cyber risk has become the greatest operational risk for financial companies. in this context, the european digital operational resilience act ( dora - published in december 2022 ) aims to strengthen the resilience of the sector ; it will apply to all financial entities as from january 2025. in addition to the current

denis beau : european association of cooperative banks keynote speech by mr denis beau, first deputy governor of the bank of france, at the general assembly of the european association of cooperative banks, 29 april 2022. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i ’ m delighted to be with you, even if i would have preferred a more serene context after two years of crises. the war in ukraine is casting a new shadow on our times with deep and possibly long standing consequences on economic and financial relations at global and regional levels. in the short run, it could alter significantly our macroeconomic and macrofinancial environment, bringing new challenges and amplifying old ones both for financial institutions and public policy makers and supervisors. today, i would like to discuss some of these challenges, by sharing with you, with my central banker and supervisor lens, my perspective on short run challenges associated with the macroeconomic and the financial stability outlook and on longer term challenges associated with climate change and digitalisation of finance. 1. the macroeconomic outlook : the challenges associated to a new interest rates environment the war in ukraine is likely to play an important role in the growth and price perspectives in the euro area, as it represents a so - called “ slow - flationary ” shock whose impact in terms of length and magnitude is highly uncertain at the current juncture. it is already clear however that it will amplify the headwinds to the strong recovery that the euro – area has been experiencing in 2021, and that it will intensify inflation pressures in a context where inflation has already increased significantly and will remain high over the coming months. the general uncertainty that marks the euro - area macroeconomic environment has implications for the conduct of monetary policy. in these conditions, it is important to balance carefully the risks of waiting too long to act as opposed to those of normalizing too soon. in any case, the commitment of the ecb is clear : the governing council will do what is necessary to bring inflation firmly and durably to around two per cent over the medium term. the forward guidance, relying on state contingent criteria and the “ sequencing ” are instrumental to this goal. policy normalization will follow a clear order : the ecb will end its asset purchases first, likely in q3 2022, then raise the key interest rates, eventually reducing its balance sheet in a third step. all along this gradual process of normalization, the governing council of the ecb made it clear that it will maintainop