under christine lagarde, focusing particularly on the key issue of our inflation target. stabilisation of regulations too, for banks and insurers. this is important for you, as it is for me, even though we do not always understand it in exactly the same way. we mustn ’ t get carried away – there will not be a basel iv –, or backtrack : we must transpose in europe the basel iii international agreement concluded in december 2017. i repeat, this agreement was and remains the best possible one for france and for europe. i recall that the removal of internal models was a key element in the negotiations. we fought hard to gain the lasting recognition of these models while committing ourselves to further improving their comparability. the application of basel iii will not require a dedicated capital increase for any french bank. the implementation of this agreement will not have a negative impact on the financing of our economy. this concern traditionally voiced by the banking industry has always proved unfounded : on the contrary, credit growth in france remains very robust at 7 % per year. but we are fully aware, as is bercy, of the negotiations that remain to be conducted. and france will fight for a transposition that is both fair and reasonable. fair because there would be no question of transposing it in europe if the united states did not apply the agreement. 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches reasonable in terms of managing capital requirements under basel iii. firstly, i believe it is necessary to apply the output floor at the consolidated level of the banking groups. the basel requirements will also have to be intelligently integrated with the capital buffers that are already applied in europe under pillar 2 2020 will also be the year of the solvency ii review. we had expressed our reservations about the document circulated for consultation by eiopa. i am delighted that the discussions with several of our key partners are taking forward our main concerns : the review must not lead to an increase in capital requirements for the european insurance sector ; the calculation of the risk margin must be less penalising ; the convergence of national practices must be enhanced. we are also continuing discussions on how to improve the financing of our firms – reducing the equity shock is one of the levers – and investments, particularly for the ecological transition. 2 – a year of adaptation i will now turn to the subject that concerns you most. low interest rates, let alone negative ones, are not an end in themselves. i had

much trust in the absolute figures regarding caps. for me there is only one objective : to maintain price stability. that means we both need to have the credible prospect of returning to our objective of close to but lower than 2 per cent inflation, and we must ensure that expectations are not disanchored. if, thanks to the fall in the oil price, inflation, which was already very low, were to remain too low for too long, we would need to act to continue to ensure the credibility of our goal. there doesn ’ t seem to be a consensual view in the governing council? c. n. on all new measures, there has always been a lot of prior discussion, after which we have always managed to make a decision. the debate is not only about whether we should do it at all but also about when we should do it. some believe that should have started buying bonds months ago, others think that we should do it maybe later or that we should do it straightaway. there are not two opposing camps ; it is much more complex than that. and many of us have held certain views but have changed their minds over time, wondering whether quantitative easing was the only way to maintain price stability. whatever we do, it bis central bankers ’ speeches must be a common eurosystem programme, in which all national central banks take part, with clear rules and coordinated by the governing council. no one should be excluded, no one should be allowed to purchase more than others. we have had negative inflation figures last week. isn ’ t that an argument to start now? c. n. this is not about negative inflation figures at a point in time, but rather about the risk of having either negative of very low inflation for a too long period of time. expectations could then change, resulting in less consumption and less investment. the credibility of the ability of the ecb to keep price stability must not be jeopardised. should the ecb limit its purchases to highly - rated bonds? c. n. it is too early to answer your question. but if we were to step in, we would have to be very attentive not to disturb the way the market values the various risks and spreads. one way to avoid this would be not to buy too many bonds in the same market segment. has the french government done enough do reduce the fiscal deficit and to improve the conditions for growth? c. n. social contributions must be reduced, which is