central bankers, whatever the regulatory environment they are operating in. in - depth knowledge of the banking sector and the various financial institutions is extremely useful when it comes to reacting and making decisions during periods of turmoil in the credit and money markets. since the beginning of the crisis, central banks have had to judge almost instantly the appropriateness of injecting liquidity in different forms and for different timeframes. it is therefore particularly important to be able to assess the quality of the market participants and the reality of their needs. more generally, it is crucial during periods of crisis to distinguish between liquidity problems and solvency problems. therefore it is a considerable advantage to have all the cards in one ’ s hands. as regards the infrastructure of supervision, it seems clear to me that simple, robust and pragmatic plans have shown their efficiency compared to more sophisticated and complex schemes. during the last few months, at no time have i felt that our organisation was deficient or was preventing me from obtaining adequate information needed to make the necessary decisions. we have managed to deal with all situations, and i have observed the efficiency of our supervision system on a daily basis. nonetheless, it is clear that an in - depth and comprehensive debate on the optimum structure of financial supervision in europe is necessary. structures have to adapt to the rapid integration of the markets. i firmly support the lamfalussy process and i am convinced that the current efforts to improve and develop this process deserve our full attention. i also firmly believe that the process must be carried out with pragmatism and completely in tune with reality rather than based on a theoretical scheme or vision. * mr chairman, ladies and gentlemen, we are living through an extremely difficult period of economic history. i am nonetheless firmly convinced that in france and europe we have both the tools necessary to help us out of this crisis and the necessary vision to guide our actions. the public authorities have shown their willingness to shore up the financial system. it is now essential that the system proves to be dynamic and takes the initiative, as it has in the past, so that the credit that is essential to the economy is available in sufficient quantity and quality. i am sure that credit agricole will, as it has in the past, muster the necessary energy for the benefit of our economy. thank you very much.

francois villeroy de galhau : card payments in europe – latest trends and challenges speech by mr francois villeroy de galhau, governor of the bank of france, at the bank of france conference “ card payments in europe – latest trends and challenges ”, paris, 18 january 2016. * * * ladies and gentlemen, dear yves mersch, dear mario nava, first and foremost, on behalf of banque de france, i would like to warmly welcome you all in paris. i am delighted to open this conference dedicated to card payments in europe. a large number of european actors involved in the card payments market are represented today, including regulatory authorities and market players, and i have no doubt that the debates that are going to take place will give us a valuable insight on the latest trends and the challenges they bring with them. before leaving the floor to our speakers and panelists, i would simply like to share with you a few thoughts on two of those challenges, one addressed to the supply side of the card payments market and one to the regulatory community. i. first challenge : the sustainability of the dominance gained by cards as payment instruments. will the most used payment instrument in europe continue to rise or will it fall? over the last decade, payment cards have steadily consolidated their dominance as the most used non - cash payment instruments in france and europe. in 2014, payment cards were used for more than 47 billion transactions in the european union, that is to say a level almost identical to the overall combined number of transactions involving credit transfers and direct debits, respectively the second and third most used payment instruments. in france, payment cards were used in more than 50 % of all non - cash payments transactions, amounting to nearly 9. 5 billion operations in 2014, compared to only 3 billion transactions in 2001. the specificity of card payments is that they occur for transactions of a relatively small amount ( 47€ in average in france ), making it the strongest alternative to cash for proximity payments. this situation is the result of years of efforts made by market stakeholders to build a secure, efficient and convenient payment instrument. the french community was at the forefront of such evolution with the early adoption in 1992 of chip for payment cards, which has been followed by the introduction and the subsequent widespread adoption of the emv standard. this latter evolution has been the cornerstone of the uptake of payment cards by allowing fast and secure transactions through europe. this predominance of payment cards may nonetheless