”. against this backdrop, the paris financial centre has many assets. paris hosts one of the most developed capital markets in continental europe, the first asset management industry, a leading bond market, the largest commercial paper market with neu - cp and the largest private equity investor in continental europe. moreover, paris offers an attractive pool of highly skilled staff in financial services. the french government and the french financial authorities, including the banque de france, are also working together to facilitating the dissemination of sound and safe financial innovations and fostering the scaling up of sustainable finance. these investments are protected by a very resilient banking system, accompanied by consistent regulation. let me remind you that paris is already home to the european securities and markets authority and will soon host the european banking authority. in addition, the paris court of appeal was granted an 3 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches international chamber last february, with international commercial affairs falling within its remit. that will duly complete the paris court organisation, which already includes an international chamber in its commercial court. last but not least, let me stress that the french authorities are making sure that the paris financial centre and its participants benefit from a streamlined and business - friendly regulatory framework, for instance in areas such as bond issuance and securitisation. meanwhile, significant efforts have been made by the french government to alleviate the tax regime and social contributions of “ impatriates. ” starting in 2016 under the previous government, they have been amplified by the new one, including on the eve of the business summit last january. * * * france is changing, for the better. but it is still dependent on its economic environment, obviously. let me conclude with two wishes. first : that europe is courageous enough to strengthen itself through this cyclical upswing. combining more reforms in france and more fiscal stimulus in germany, as will happen, is welcome but not sufficient : we need a stronger economic union in the euro area to avoid overburdening monetary policy by the next recession. and second, that the united states and the g20 are clear - sighted enough to address their economic challenges through multilateral answers, and not unilateral ones : here too, france is a reliable partner. 4 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches

the reduced cost of risk. in this context, it is important to remember how much our financial institutions owe to the strength of our prudential rules. twelve years on from the 2009 great financial crisis, it is no coincidence that the current crisis – health - related, economic – has not this time escalated into a financial crisis. this is in large part thanks to our prudential framework which has considerably increased the resilience of the main french banks, as well as that of their european and international peers. so yes, it is in our national interest that france remain committed to a full implementation of the december 2017 basel iii accord that is fair, definitive and reasonable : fair in the sense that there must be regulatory consistency with the united states, which appears to be fully guaranteed ; definitive because there will be no basel iv ; and reasonable with regard to the application of the output floor. i support the application of the output floor at consolidated level for french banking groups, and solely for the calculation of the capital requirements defined in the basel accord, as proposed by the franco - german position. in insurance, solvency ii has enabled firms to confront the crisis on a very solid footing. but, as well as providing essential support for equity investment, the review of the regulation must allow us to strengthen the supervision and cooperation framework for cross - border activities. it is unacceptable that our national guarantee funds have to cover insurance payouts in the event of failures of cross - border insurers. supervisors and guarantee funds in countries of origin should be made to shoulder more responsibility. our single market has its rules : freedom of movement does not imply free - riding! ii. five essential challenges still need to be addressed in the short term, two challenges linked to the exit from the crisis let us turn now to the challenges. the emergence from this crisis remains shrouded in uncertainty, and is very much conditional on the financial health of our firms. the acpr is paying close attention to the impact of the rising risk of bankruptcies on banks ’ solidity, and has not so far noted any significant increase ; i have already taken the opportunity to put some of the overly alarmist readings of the esrb ’ s recent report into perspective. with the recovery, the lifting of the public health restrictions will need to be followed by a winding down of public aid mechanisms. support for businesses has to switch from the widespread provision of liquidity to a more selective phase of quasi - equity based support, targeted at firms that