the banque de france, has for example established a charter to make payment services more accessible to people with disabilities. meanwhile, the observatory for the security of payment means, under the auspices of the banque de france, is elaborating – together with industry representatives – recommendations to constantly improve the security of payment instruments in the face of increasingly sophisticated fraud techniques. b. • innovating through the digital euro central banks are not only supporting innovation : they are also driving. this aspect is epitomised by the digital euro initiative, which is a public response to the challenges i mentioned earlier. • the digital euro will be a new form of central bank money, issued by the eurosystem and available to the general public. it will complement, not replace, cash and other means of payment. • first and foremost, the digital euro will preserve the most valuable features of cash in the digital space, making it a true “ digital banknote ”. as legal tender, it would be usable throughout the euro area in all contexts, including e - commerce. its offline mechanism will provide a cash - like level of privacy and increase our resilience. it will be free of charge for individuals. its characteristics will support digital financial inclusion, including for people without bank accounts or smartphones. • with these unique features, the digital euro will strengthen consumers ’ freedom of choice. i would like to dispel a few unfounded fears about the digital euro. first, the central bank will never be able to see the personal data of the digital euro end - users : the idea is not to create some kind of european “ big brother ”, but rather to provide a new means of payment that can offer an unprecedented level of privacy in the digital space. second, the digital euro will never be programmable money, i. e. the central bank will never be able to restrict its use, either over time or in terms of the goods and services that can be purchased. also, like banknotes, the digital euro will not bear interest, either positive or negative. finally, the digital euro will not replace cash : the eurosystem is committed 5 to ensuring that cash remains widely see the eurosystem ’ s cash strategy. page 6 / 8 accessible and accepted and plans6 to design a new series of banknotes. meanwhile, the european commission has published a proposal for a regulation to support the legal tender status of cash within the eu. and the banque de france has

also fixed income, commodity, and currency markets. herd behaviour has always been a characteristic of financial markets. but herds of robots have proven to be far more deadly than herds of humans. the international organisation of securities commissions ( iosco ) has since mandated that exchanges have in place mechanisms to manage extreme volatility. and securities regulators have themselves started to use ai – to provide early warning of potentially disruptive ai - based trading patterns and trigger appropriate circuit - breakers. but more generally, the increased use of ai by financial institutions has created the risk of “ black boxes ” in decision - making. boards and senior management of financial institutions are struggling to validate ai - based models which use continuous learning and adaptation as distinct from fixed parameters and 6 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches historical back - testing. the application of ai in financial services has also created issues of financial exclusion which regulators cannot ignore. regulators have begun to detect cases where ai - based decision - making has led to systematic exclusion of certain demographics. when an ai tool finds an empirical basis for discriminating by a combination of variables such as gender, ethnicity, religion, and nationality, say for a loan or insurance decision, how much of that empiricism is grounded in reality and how much of it is due to unobserved biases in society that the ai is learning from? and even if such discrimination is backed by empirical unbiased data, is that a socially acceptable outcome? regulators in many jurisdictions have been engaging the industry as well as the broader society on developing guidance on the responsible and ethical use of ai and data analytics by financial institutions. defending against systemic cyber risk the third theme that stands out in the history of financial regulation over the last two decades is cyber security. but it was only after the global cyber crisis of 2023 that cyber risk management has moved to front and centre of the international regulatory agenda. the global cyber crisis laid bare our cyber vulnerabilities. a highly skilled and well - resourced group of hackers used ai - enabled malware to infiltrate banks across the world, subvert detection, and siphon monies. over a span of just 6 weeks, a total of us $ 45 billion was stolen from over 500 banks, leading to loss of public confidence and bank runs in several jurisdictions. only 8 % of the stolen funds has ever been recovered. the failure of algor bank at the height of the global cyber crisis demonstrated both the high points and low points in financial regulation.