francois villeroy de galhau : the digital payment revolution speech by mr francois villeroy de galhau, governor of the bank of france, at the fintech forum, paris, 7 october 2020. * * * mr minister, ladies and gentlemen, i am very happy to welcome you here to the banque de france ’ s premises this morning. i would also like to welcome those joining us remotely. we are all aware of just how important new technologies are in ensuring continuity and stability in this crisis. my dear cedric, you ’ d clearly be the first to say so. i would also like to welcome alain clot, president of france fintech, and of course robert ophele, chairman of the amf, with which we have organised this forum. your presence among us, mr minister, is proof of public authorities ’ commitment to fintechs. and that is my first message this morning : the banque de france and the acpr are also fully committed to supporting fintechs. i shall then go on to tell you how we intend to act in the digital payment revolution. * * i. the banque de france and acpr ’ s support for fintechs let ’ s start with a question i consider particularly important, and on which there should be no shred of ambiguity between us : why do the banque de france and acpr regard fintechs as important? because they are an essential element for the financial sector : they deliver creativity and they understand new needs rapidly. and they bring to the forefront french scientific expertise and technology : artificial intelligence, cryptography, distributed ledger technology, etc. regardless of how they are integrated into the financial sector – via cooperation or direct competition with established players – they make the industry more dynamic. this is also true with regard to the entry into financial services of the bigtechs, which are often less keen on competition. i ’ m not just saying this to please the fintechs that are here with us today. it is a deeply - held belief and a commitment, on my part and on that of the entire acpr. but what, i hear you ask, are you doing concretely to help the fintechs in their development? let me start by reminding you that the banque de france is working with fintechs on two levels : via its mission of providing services to the economy – to businesses and smes – and via its mission of safeguarding financial stability. our role as

##s – with the result that it now has limited control over the management of personal data. in parallel, the rise of crypto - assets and above all of stablecoins means they could potentially try to replace central bank and commercial bank money, even though they offer none of the same guarantees in terms of liquidity, service continuity and neutrality. in light of this situation, europe needs to develop a payments strategy. i have often pushed for this over the past two years. recently, we have made decisive progress thanks to the strong involvement of the ecb and the commission. we now have to put this into action and “ deliver ” – this is urgent for the next two years. this strategy notably combines three elements : 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches 1 / european regulation on stablecoins : on 24 september, the european commission published its mica project, which in our view provides a good basis for reconciling innovation with consumer protection and financial stability. 2 / an acceleration on the european central bank digital currency ( cbdc ), the “ digital euro ”. we haven ’ t yet decided on it, but we need to be ready to decide if it becomes necessary, and as soon as it becomes necessary. the banque de france was the first to start a programme of eight experiments on a wholesale cbdc, notably with a number of fintechs, to improve the functioning of the financial markets and institutions. if necessary, the eurosystem could decide to issue a retail cbdc to ensure the general public have access to central bank money, especially in countries where cash payments are in decline. the ecb has created a high - level task force whose report we published ten days ago. we will now launch a public consultation, starting today, examine all regulatory and technical issues, and begin experiments at the national central banks – the banque de france will contribute actively to this. between now and mid - 2021, the eurosystem will decide whether to launch a project for a digital euro, which would start with an investigatory phase. and while we ’ re on the topic, let me just comment on the terminology used : you sometimes hear people talk about cryptocurrencies, but the term is a contradiction. you either have a currency, with all its functions and a public guarantee, or private crypto - assets. but there is no such thing as a cryptocurrency. 3 / a european mobilisation on private payment infrastructures thanks