by central banks. indeed, commercial bank digital currency already exists. it will remain dominant in payments and is generally perceived as being as safe as central bank currency, however, this confidence is rooted in its full and direct convertibility with the public money issued by the central bank. losing this public anchor - in a world of digital payments without cbdc - would ultimately mean jeopardising this private trust. * the decision here will rest with the public authorities, with a “ sovereign ” dimension, but today, i would really like to get beyond a mere discussion about the digital " retail " euro. taking a partnership approach to innovation, our common challenge as europeans is to leverage – all together – the tremendous potential for innovation opening up before us : in commercial banking, the phased launch of the european payments initiative ( epi ) – which has our full backing – will provide a modern, european payment solution, and what would appear to be a viable solution for circulating the digital euro alongside the commercial euro. french and european commercial banks could also develop tokenised bank deposits with enhanced features. in a remarkable report, vi the bis recently stated its clear preference for these tokenised bank deposits that will offer greater security, rather than for stablecoins ( all of which are issued by non - european players and mostly backed by the dollar ). issuing and trading of financial assets is also being modernised through tokenisation underpinned by new distributed ledger technologies. page 6 of 6 in addition, in central banking, the development of “ wholesale ” cbdc would appear to be just as important as the digital retail euro in extending the anchoring role of central bank money in the tokenised sphere, by securing interbank settlements and financial transactions. the banque de france has played a pioneering role here through twelve experiments conducted with the private sector : we will be publishing the results this summer. we have demonstrated that wholesale cbdc could facilitate interoperability between different dlt platforms developed by the public or private sector as well as with existing settlement systems. following on from these ideas, the ecb has also announced a series of experiments across the euro areavii which could begin in 2024. as part of this process, we are prepared to support the new european pilot programme directly by making cbdc available as a settlement asset. providing a tokenised settlement asset could also be rounded out by a european infrastructure – in the euro area - that would bring together all tokenised assets ( cbdc, deposits, financial assets )

##due. the diversification, properly understood, of the investments of french savers towards more equity - based, long - term savings is in everyone ’ s interest. and today there are additional incentives for life insurers to offer new products that break away from the dual cash - liquidity guarantee, due to the lesser solvency ii capital requirements. and this brings me to the issue of regulation. here too, insurers have an essential role to play, i n preparing the review of the solvency ii directive ’ s new regulatory framework. the directive came into force almost two years ago now and you have implemented it with a great deal of professionalism. in many respects, solvency ii represents a very significant step forward for the insurance sector. but this does not mean that it ’ s perfect : we must analyse its impacts closely, particularly its effects on investment behaviour and the financing of the economy, in order to propose the adjustments that prove necessary. progress has already been made on the financing of infrastructure projects and businesses, thanks to two amendments that came into effect in april 2016 and september 2017, respectively, which adapted the calibration of capital requirements. more generally though, the reviews of the standard formula and long - term guarantee package measures planned for 2018 and 2020, respectively, are important opportunities to make essential improvements. the work is already underway, and the more you 2 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches actively participate, alongside your european colleagues, the more our chances of success will be enhanced. iii. the role of insurers in the digitalisation of our economy it is essential for our economy to adapt to the digital revolution : it creates incredible opportunities, but with them, new risks against which the insurance sector, once again, can bring stability and protection. i would like to discuss two subjects in particular : firstly, cyber - insurance. the cyber - insurance market is still underdeveloped. insurers can and should take inspiration from their own experiences in tackling cyber - risk, and use it to develop a more mature french and european cyber - insurance offering. the coverage against cyber - risk is a very real concern that affects all companies – both small and large – as cyber - attacks are becoming increasingly frequent and costly : according to figures from euler - hermes, 57 % of french companies were victims of these attacks in 2016, compared with 32 % in 2015. we at the banque de france, alongside the eurosystem and our g7 colleagues,