– the gafa – and today the transformation of banks and insurance companies. they have committed themselves to it, much more actively in 2016 ; monitoring the consequences for their business models is one of the priorities of european supervision in 2017. new opportunities will also have to be seized : the possible exploitation of data, while protecting customers and ensuring a real level playing field with the gafa ; or the development of cyberinsurance. 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the third challenge is the protection of the customers of banks and insurance companies, which is of course one of our core tasks. the acpr received more than 6, 500 letters in 2016, an increase of almost 20 % in two years, and made more than 600 interventions among the bodies, institutions or intermediaries concerned. the acpr has also continued to work towards the dissemination of good practices, with five recommendations adopted or revised in 2016, notably regarding the new practices related to social media or “ complex products ”. finally, in its audits, the acpr focused on providing advice on health insurance contracts, the de - linking of home loans and borrower insurance, and on compliance with obligations related to unclaimed life insurance policies. on this subject of the “ eckert act ", the insurance companies monitored by the acpr paid out eur 2 billion to the beneficiaries of unclaimed policies in 2015 ; banks, for their part, transferred 5. 5 million inactive bank accounts to the caisse des depots et consignations in 2016, representing a total amount of eur 1. 9 billion to be claimed by the account holders or their beneficiaries. the fourth challenge is the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which in 2016 was a higher priority for action. we carried out 30 missions among banks and insurance companies on this subject in 2016, as against 22 in 2015. these missions complement the substantive action of the ongoing supervision, which resulted last year in close to 700 follow - up letters. in total, we initiated and published six disciplinary sanctions against institutions. the year 2016 was therefore an active year in this field, raising to 22 the number of sanctions taken since 2010 for noncompliance with the regulations. * * * in conclusion, it is with pride that i look at what was achieved in 2016, but without any let - up or complacency : many projects await us in 2017, both nationally and internationally. a strong acpr must have

earning a zero return during the prepayment period. similarly, one can make excessive tax payments to the taxing authority, and earn nothing during the period before one receives a refund, thereby avoiding negative deposit rates at banks. such “ zero nominal rate ” conventions abound in society, and the lower the negative rate, the more people will search for such ways to avoid the negative rates that might prevail elsewhere. 7 consequently, our proposition could now include this consideration : different economic agents will be more or less willing to invest in negative rate investments to the extent that their costs of handling currency are lower or higher than others ’, and to the extent they have available to them zero interest rate economic arrangements. in addition, having talented individuals looking for these opportunities is a dead - weight loss to society. we would rather have them use their talents for more socially productive purposes. in addition to the convention that all prepayments of debt carry a zero interest rate, creditors often have the option of deciding when to settle a debt, for example by choosing when to deposit a check once it is received. in an environment in which negative nominal rates prevail, one would want to collect debts slowly ( at least from creditworthy counterparties ). 8 for example, if one were to receive a check from the u. s. government for a tax refund, one could simply put it in a safe place and earn zero interest on it during the time the check remained undeposited. ( these practices could trigger further innovations, such as a check with a “ deposit - by ” date embedded in it. ) how strong these incentives are depends on the level of the negative rates. the lower the negative rate and the more persistent it is expected to be, the more attractive these practices would be. consequently, these zero rate economic arrangements form another constraint that would prevent rates from going too far into negative territory. notice that leaving the check undeposited, much like the hoarding of currency, is a negative outcome for society. in this case, the receiver of the check is able to impose the costs of earning negative deposit rates on the check writer. but this outcome turns on its head the reason that the convention of allowing the check receiver the option of deciding when to deposit a check was adopted in the first place. under positive interest rates, the check receiver has an incentive to deposit the check at his or her earliest convenience. in other words, these conventions are incentive - compatible ways