is close to the european average but still structurally too low. page 3 of 8 banks continued to play their full role in financing the economy, providing a robust supply of credit : 4 % growth in loans to smes and even 6 % growth in residential housing loans, which is a particularly high rate. credit in france is continuing to grow faster than the economy, so private debt – that of corporations and households – is still rising. with regard to corporate loans, i said here last year that the gradual winding down of the government aid measures posed a manageable risk to the financial sector. indeed, the wave of business failures feared by some has not in fact materialised. at the end of april 2022, the total number of failures over the page 4 of 8 previous 12 months was 43 % lower than the figure for april 2019. i and even more importantly, according to our estimates, more than 95 % of stateguaranteed loans ( sgls ) should be repaid on time. half the sgls granted in 2020 started to be repaid in 2021 ; repayments on the other half began as of april this year. true, the shock of the war in ukraine is slowing our rate of growth, and i shall come back to this. but the soundness of our banks and businesses at the end of 2021, with the emergence from the covid crisis, gives strong grounds for confidence. there is nothing today that justifies, in the face of certain warnings or excessive demands, a return to the exceptional measures that we saw in 2020 : either in bank prudential regulations or in terms of general, untargeted support for businesses. the credit mediation service, which is attached to the banque de france has received very few requests for the restructuring of sgls ( fewer than 200 cases out of a total of 700, 000 sgls granted ). france has the strongest banking and insurance sector in the euro area : this is a major asset for our economy, and one that our country is not always sufficiently aware of or positive about. this justifies us paying close attention to a healthy regulatory framework. ii. a regulatory framework that remains to be finalised with regard to banking regulation, the commission presented its proposal at the end of october 2021 for the transposition into eu law of the international agreement of december 2017, which is a decisive step towards the finalisation of basel iii. the acpr supports this proposal which takes full account of europe ’ s specificities and allows sufficient

christian noyer : the euro area is getting stronger speech by mr christian noyer, governor of the bank of france and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, at the paris europlace international financial forum, “ post - crisis growth and investment opportunities in europe ”, new york, 22 april 2013. * * * mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen, i am very pleased to have this opportunity to speak to you here in new york. i ’ d like to offer you some views about the euro area from both a short - and long - term perspective. i ’ ll start with cyprus. this was certainly a traumatic episode. obviously, the decision process was not optimal. and the adjustment effort requested from the country, while absolutely necessary, was totally unexpected by the population. as a result, many observers have interpreted the cyprus crisis as a sign of fragility and uncertainty about the euro. in fact, it ’ s quite the opposite. imagine if the situation in cyprus had occurred nine months ago. most likely it would have resulted in a new wave of turbulence in euro sovereign markets, with interest rate increases and strong capital flows out of the periphery. this was not the case. there was no contagion, and no spill - over effects from cyprus to other euro area countries. during the first quarter of 2013, when the cyprus crisis developed, long - term interest rates in greece, portugal and ireland actually declined by around 270, 120 and 130 bps, respectively. in the case of spain, yields decreased by 70 bps, while in italy, they decreased by 30 bps. this is the first time in three years that a major crisis in one euro area country has not affected others. this sends an important message. the euro area is more robust today than it was a year ago. while challenges remain, the actions taken have increased our resilience to internal and external shocks. before i move on to other areas of progress, i would like to say a few more words on cyprus. first, the financial support provided by the euro area countries and the imf was very substantial, up to eur 10, 000 for every cypriot citizen. this should put to rest the claims that the country was unfairly treated and discriminated against. second, the commitment to protect insured depositors has been maintained in the euro area and, in fact, is strengthened as a result of recent events. last but not least : cyprus is a unique case