of existence, it is now fully operational, with more than 2, 300 supervisory decisions in 2017 alone. those of you who work within the ssm are the living breathing reality of european integration. every day you prove that closer cooperation, closer union is not a dream of the past but something we are still capable of today. part of the ssm ’ s success stems from its design : the mechanism constitutes an original model of federalism, based on a close and continuous collaboration between the ecb and national authorities at all levels : from the composition of the supervisory board to the joint supervisory teams ( jsts ), the on - site teams and staff secondments. this does not mean that all is rosy and that culture and practices have fully converged within the ssm. success allows us to consider now how the day - to - day functioning of the ssm can still be improved. in my view, there are three main strategic priorities : the first one is to further simplify processes. i welcome the current initiatives, including the creation of the simplification group chaired by petra senkovic from the ecb and edouard fernandez - bollo from the acpr. various measures are under development, like the growing use of delegation, the streamlining of srep or jst functioning. however, an essential challenge will be to make sure that all processes will remain optimised over time and that simplification becomes a full and permanent part of decision - making, from conception to execution. to do so, simplification has to become one of the values that guide the ssm. the second priority is to promote mobility, thanks in particular to staff secondments and more on - site supervisors working on banks outside their home country. other initiatives could include very short staff exchanges or swaps within jsts, between the ecb and national authorities, to allow members to better understand the culture and practices of their 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches counterparts. the third and final priority is to develop synergies. just as with the eurosystem, the banking union constitutes a system with a strong center and strong national components, which ultimately have to act as one team. the goal is to make the best use of national resources by fostering their participation in all key tasks of the ssm. national authorities should not hesitate to step up their involvement in the ssm. in return, the ecb should further empower national authorities, especially in the framework of day - to - day

of the new commission. the ecb will support it, and france will be a committed player. my second prerequisite is the successful implementation of basel iii. it is vital that we do not forget the lessons from the financial crisis, nor break the promise we made in 2017. but this transposition must be fair – naturally involving the united states – and reasonable. the first estimates of capital requirements are premature and do not give the horizon : basel iii will be finalised only in 2027. but our objective and our assessment are crystal clear : basel iii is for all french banks compatible with normal allocations of profits to reserves in the coming years, after distribution ; in no case will it require a dedicated capital increase. ii. taking the digital turn with lucidity we obviously all need to make the digital leap. digitalisation is shaking up the way we live and consume, opening up a world of possibilities for corporates and customers alike. worldwide, it clearly represents both an opportunity and a challenge for banks, as well as for supervisors. the acpr is working actively on these issues. last year, it published a discussion paper on the implications of ai in the financial sector. and this year, we are working with financial industry participants on the implications of ai algorithms in three topics : aml / ctf, internal models and customer protection. beyond incumbents, new players are now becoming increasingly important. fintechs are competing on niche markets. yet they do not have the capital resources to disrupt incumbent banks and can even be acquired by them. on the contrary, bigtechs do have the potential to fundamentally redefine financial intermediation : they have strong brand recognition, a worldwide customer base and privileged access to cutting - edge technologies. this new situation is a major challenge for regulators and supervisors. of course, financial regulation should remain technologically neutral : the basic principle “ same activity, same rules ” still applies. this is a good thing for the level playing field. page 3 sur 5 however, beyond traditional financial regulation, international cooperation should be developed in three areas, three cornerstones of the regulation of digital finance. first, cybersecurity is a sine qua non for a reliable and sustainable digital future. it is a clear priority of the g7 french presidency next week in chantilly. second, regarding data protection, financial supervisors and authorities in charge of privacy have to invent new ways of cooperation to address data issues that have become central to financial services