advertising and contracts that enable it to analyse promotional material. by means of a survey conducted among over 300 institutions, the acp also checked compliance with the provisions made by banks to facilitate banking mobility. in addition, in order to reinforce its activities at local level, the acp works with the banque de france branch network, which is mobilised to carry out inspections of insurance intermediaries. all of these actions have made it possible to identify good practices in the area of the marketing of banking and insurance products and five recommendations in the area of consumer protection were published during 2011. i may mention in particular the recommendation relating to the measures that insurance undertakings must implement to deal with conflicts of interest when consumers are offered unit - linked insurance policies composed of bonds and other debt securities from an issuer that is financially linked to the insurance undertaking. to conclude on this point, i will add that, although the legislation applicable to the revised sanctions procedure was only published in the middle of the year, the acp began to exercise its power to impose sanctions with three decisions that mainly concern breaches in terms of internal control and anti - money laundering procedures. iii ) 2012 is a year of intense preparations for the forthcoming regulatory developments. throughout 2011, the acp actively participated in the preparation of the transposition of the “ basel iii ” agreements into european law which is due to be adopted in mid - 2012 and in the negotiations preparing the entry into force of “ solvency ii ”. at national level, the preparation of banks for the new “ basel 2. 5 ” and “ basel iii ” regulations was one of the priorities of the on - site inspections and of the teams responsible for preparing authorisations for the use of internal models notably for market risk. in 2012, the acp will continue with its work helping the market to adjust to the new regulatory frameworks, notably by putting in place, in coordination with the supervised institutions, the new procedures for prudential reporting. with regard to banks, i also see a number of areas where decisive progress is expected in 2012. without going into detail at this stage, i will just mention : • the work on the regulatory framework applicable to systemic banks, which will be pursued with the idea of taking into account that, owing to their size relative to a domestic market, certain banks can generate major systemic risk in a given country ; • the finalisation of liquidity regulation, which must revisit the stress test scenarios applied to banks ’ assets and

even more pressure on them. however, this was not the case. of course, what we call the “ cost of risk ” increased considerably in 2011 with the need to provision the risk associated with greek debt. but the distribution of credit remained buoyant and the net banking income of french banks remained stable ( – 1. 5 % for the five main banking groups ). their aggregated profit, down 36 % compared with 2010 to 14 billion euro was substantially higher than the 2008 and 2009 level, and this allowed them to significantly bolster their own funds and to continue financing the french economy. the acp ’ s vigilance has been decisive in helping the banks to maintain a satisfactory liquidity and solvency situation. in 2011, the acp conducted 136 on - site inspections ; the risk profiles of 700 institutions were analysed according to a harmonised procedure with, notably, a sustained pace of meetings with the senior managers and heads of the main business bis central bankers ’ speeches lines, thereby allowing the acp to draw up detailed maps of the main risks to which they are exposed. during 2011, the two principal dimensions of prudential supervision – monitoring credit institution liquidity and solvency – required particular vigilance by the acp. credit institutions ’ liquidity levels were monitored more closely, particularly in its dollar resources dimension ; this is an area where the rationale behind the acp ’ s being placed under the aegis of the banque de france – which is responsible for central bank refinancing – is clearly demonstrated. by ensuring that the adequate risk provisioning, the reduction of management ’ s and market participants ’ compensation and the allocation of the bulk of profits to strengthen own funds, the acp has managed to ensure – over the longer term – the solvency of the french banking sector. today, all the major banking groups have core tier 1 own funds ratios above 9 %. this confirms their capacity to meet the targets set for 30 june 2012 by the european banking authority ( eba ), thereby contributing to their adaptation to the future basel iii regulatory framework and the fulfilment of the objectives announced to the market. lastly, the acp has resolutely placed its individual supervision within a macro - prudential perspective. our authority has been particularly attentive to the way banks fulfil their role in financing the economy via the extension of loans to non - financial companies and to households, in a context in which both regulatory changes