christian noyer : publication of bank of france ’ s financial stability review “ the future of financial regulation ” remarks by mr christian noyer, governor of the bank of france, at the publication of bank of france ’ s financial stability review “ the future of financial regulation ”, london, 4 september 2009. * * * it's a pleasure to welcome you here, in london, on the eve of a very important g20 ministerial meeting and to introduce the latest issue of our financial stability review. it is also a privilege to have such a distinguished panel for this introduction and i want to express my gratitude to all. the review is about the future of financial regulation. our hope was to help and contribute to the international discussions and the publication of this review could not be timelier. the financial crisis has taught us some very hard lessons. while there are many causes to the crisis, including, maybe, macro economic policies, it is also clear that it forces us to reconsider the way we regulate and supervise the financial system. that is what we are doing, and this will take a significant part in tomorrow's discussions between g20 ministers and central bank governors. at stake is the scope of financial regulation, its nature, and its objectives. the scope of financial regulation we entered this crisis with many unregulated entities playing a major role in the financial system. so, from a supervisory perspective, they were huge " black holes ", including what has been called a " shadow banking system " where most of the excesses of securitisation took place. not any more. during the last twelve months, a coordinated effort by industrialized and emerging countries alike has brought most important financial actors under the umbrella of supervision. principles and rules have been enacted for rating agencies to deal with their conflicts of interest, enhance their rating process, increase transparency and their oversight through compulsory registration. hedge funds will go through a process of licensing and oversight : they will have to meet transparency requirements towards both investors and regulators. finally, off balance sheet activities will be consolidated and disciplined through changes in the accounting and prudential frameworks. the nature of financial regulation and supervision is changing. here, i see two major trends. we must complement micro - supervision with macro - financial supervision, taking into account the systemic importance and interconnectedness of institutions, markets, instruments and the cumulative risks and dynamics which they create. system - wide phenomena that went unchecked, such as the aggregate rise in leverage

bank of france reports industrial output continued to grow in most sectors in france in january 1997 bank of france, monthly business survey, 17 / 2 / 97. in january, according to the business leaders surveyed by the banque de france, industrial output continued to grow in most sectors. activity was especially buoyant in the intermediate goods and consumer goods sectors. the food processing sector was alone in recording a contraction in activity. the capacity utilization rate improved. overall demand strengthened further. french products were very competitive on foreign markets and this led to an increase in export orders. export sales increased in the united kingdom, italy and germany, while demand remained firm in the united states and asia. on the domestic market, inter - industry demand was strong, even though the orders received came with very short delivery times in most cases. order books are now near to normal levels. they are still considered to be low in the food - processing and automobile industries, but are deemed to be satisfactory in the capital goods and consumer goods sectors. inventories of finished products are gradually returning to normal overall, but they still exceed the desired levels in the consumer goods, food - processing and intermediate goods sectors. the outlook for the coming months is distinctly brighter. activity should increase in all sectors, with marked improvements in the intermediate goods and food - processing sectors. commodity prices were stable overall, while finished product prices declined slightly. this fall stemmed mainly from substantial price cuts in the automobile industry, while prices generally held up in the other sectors. investment plans for 1997 appear to be less ambitious on the whole compared with capital spending plans at the same period in 1996. nevertheless, the business leaders polled in january were more confident about future activity than they were a few months earlier. this could mean that previously postponed investment plans may be implemented in the coming months. however, plans for increasing output capacity remained few and far between, owing to the spare capacity currently available, and depend on stronger growth in demand. retail sales in january were up markedly over december 1996, and only slightly down on the exceptionally high level recorded a year earlier. employment levels remained stable in nearly all industrial sectors. they showed only a slight change in the services and retail sectors, but there were further falls in the building industry.