enriching the financial ecosystem and making it more efficient and resilient lies in strengthening the relationships between players and their diversity. what do we want to do and what are we doing at the banque de france and the acpr to support this development of the fintech ecosystem? the short answer to this question, which i will now illustrate, is, on the one hand, to be a useful player in the fintech ecosystem and, on the other hand, to promote and implement a regulatory framework and appropriate supervisory practices that foster both innovation and the stability of our financial system. 1 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches * in order to be a useful player in the fintech ecosystem, we have two objectives : facilitate and experiment facilitate, firstly. this is what we are doing via the implementation of specific support tools. for instance, under the aegis of a national start - up correspondent, who is also the french tech correspondent, the banque de france has just deployed a network of regional start - up correspondents in each of the 13 french tech capitals. their mission is to be the key point of reference for rating start - ups and providing them with support and guidance thanks to their knowledge of funding mechanisms and of the main players in the ecosystem. as regards the acpr, i no longer need to present thefintech innovation unit, which has already held hundreds of meetings with start - ups since its creation. its purpose is to provide an easily accessible entry point for those with innovative projects, giving them some initial regulatory guidance to help them shape their projects and then refer them to the right correspondents for the necessary registrations or authorisations. naturally, our facilitation efforts are not limited to bilateral contacts alone. facilitating also means helping players in the ecosystem to engage with each other and find solutions without necessarily resorting to regulatory measures. it is in this spirit that we run the acpr - amf fintech forumand that we have created working groups or task forces in order to make concrete progress on important issues for the ecosystem, such as the access of digital asset service providers to the bank accounts and banking services they need. admittedly, dialogue does not solve everything, but we very often find that many difficulties can be ironed out through improved dialogue and a better understanding of the practices and technologies used by the various stakeholders. second objective : experiment. here i would like to give two different illustrations of this approach. the exploratory workshops conducted by acpr on

a large extent the stimulative effect of the very low level of interest rates. against the background of subdued domestic inflationary pressures, and with inflation expectations for the euro area as a whole solidly anchored at levels in line with price stability, the governing council concluded during the first half of 2005 that it remained appropriate to keep interest rates at their historically low levels. at the same time, it emphasised that the cross - checking of the economic analysis with the monetary analysis supported the case for continued vigilance with regard to the materialisation of risks to price stability over the medium to longer term. in the second half of 2005, economic activity gradually strengthened and hicp inflation rates rose to levels significantly above 2 %, peaking at 2. 6 % in september, mainly as a result of rising energy prices. in addition, it became increasingly apparent that the upward shift in oil prices would be protracted. accordingly, in the course of the second half of 2005, the likelihood that average annual hicp inflation would remain above 2 % over the medium term increased. moreover, this scenario of elevated inflation rates remained subject to previously identified upside risks posed by possible further increases in oil prices, a stronger pass - through of past oil price increases, additional rises in administered prices and indirect taxes, and potential second - round effects in wage and price - setting. furthermore, the monetary analysis continued to point towards increasing upside risks to price stability over the medium to longer term. monetary growth gained momentum in the third quarter of 2005 and credit expansion to the private sector remained very robust. consequently, in the second half of 2005 the governing council expressed increasing concern about upside risks to price stability and emphasised the need for strong vigilance with regard to these risks and developments in longer - term inflation expectations. indeed, by december a first adjustment of the very accommodative stance of monetary policy was clearly warranted. in view of the risks to price stability that had been identified in the economic analysis and confirmed by cross - checking with the monetary analysis, the governing council decided on 1 december to increase the key ecb interest rates by 25 basis points, after having kept them unchanged for two and a half years at the historically low level of 2 %. turning next to more recent developments and assessments, in early march 2006 the outlook for growth and inflation over the medium term that had emerged at the time of the december 2005 decision was confirmed by the incoming data. hicp inflation rates were expected to remain above 2 %