denis beau : financial markets - driving innovation and connectivity opening remarks by mr denis beau, first deputy governor of the bank of france, at the paris financial seminar, co - organised by the hong kong monetary authority and paris europlace, hong kong, 16 january 2019. * * * ladies and gentlemen, i am very pleased to open this seminar jointly organised by paris europlace and the hong kong monetary authority ( hkma ). a new year is usually the time when we regain confidence in the future and in our collective ability to prepare for it. * * * however there are many uncertainties weighing on the global economic outlook. in europe, there are still many uncertainties about the outcome of brexit negotiations and the vote over the withdrawal agreement. caution requires that we all be prepared for a no - deal scenario. public authorities and most importantly market participants have all prepared serious contingency plans to address and master the cliff - edge risks associated with such a no - deal scenario. as a result, we can expect that those risks will be appropriately managed, without financial stability implications, should such a scenario occur. outside europe, global trade tensions are also generating additional uncertainties. protectionism can indeed be a temptation, but in my view it should not be an option. let ’ s be clear : our economies are increasingly integrated, and research conducted at the banque de france suggests that a rise in protectionism on a large scale ( i. e. a generalised trade war scenario ) would have a negative impact on global growth. yet these uncertainties can be turned into opportunities and i would like to emphasise that. it is worth noting that eu member states remained impressively united behind their negotiator, michel barnier, during the brexit talks. this unity must now be directed towards achieving an ambition : completing and strengthening the economic and monetary union. this period of uncertainties actually reminds us that bilateral and multilateral cooperation are quite valuable, as they are a common wealth enhancer, especially when the issue at stake is financial regulation and financial stability. at the end of 2017, central bankers and supervisors reached a very important agreement on the basel iii post - crisis regulatory reforms. this agreement must now be implemented in various jurisdictions to further increase the soundness of the banking system. since the great financial crisis, other issues have emerged. cyber - risks have risen significantly over the last few years and the financial sector remains a primary target. the surge of crypto -

presented in september 2020 – even though there is still room for progress on these texts in order to reconcile pragmatism and flexibility with the necessary requirements in terms of risk control and the prevention of regulatory arbitrage. moreover, other regulatory changes will have to be introduced which are also very important. i ’ m referring in particular to the supervision of the development of decentralised finance, where the usual regulatory frameworks are constrained by the fact that issuers and service providers are not easily identifiable in an environment where protocols are automatically executed without intermediaries, and there is no fixed jurisdiction for the services offered. lastly, in order to be effective, regulation must be multidimensional and coordinated at national and international level. at the banque de france, we are very attached to coordination with other national and european regulators, which seems all the more essential given the increasingly cross - cutting nature of the issues. this is also a priority for us, to limit regulatory arbitrage or indeed prevent it altogether. for this reason, we are closely involved in the work of multilateral fora ( g7, g20, fsb, cpmi ), especially on crypto - assets and the improvement of cross - border payments. another action we see as a short - term priority is to facilitate and accompany initiatives by regulated players, which can help to foster a diverse and competitive market for efficient solutions, tailored to user needs. our institutions – such as the banque de france ’ s lab, its infrastructure, innovation and payments directorate ( diip ), the acpr ’ s fintech - innovation unit, with its acpr - amf fintech forum – are fully mobilised to facilitate these initiatives and help them grow. among these initiatives, three in particular are worth highlighting. first, those in the field of instant payments, which open a new chapter in the payments industry. second, the continuing development of open banking, thanks to the european financial sector ’ s work on apis. and last but not least, the european payments initiative ( epi ). some major decisions on the effective launch of epi are due to be taken in the next few weeks. but i would just like to remind you here that the banque de france fully supports this initiative, as do the other eurosystem national central banks and the european commission, and currently seven eu member states, including france, that publicly announced their support for the initiative in a statement published on 9 november. 2.