a central bank and supervisor, is to reconcile confidence and innovation. if you would allow me to borrow a metaphor from the history of the railroads – which were originally a major innovation in the 19th century, but also one that was not without its risks – our role is to prevent the train from derailing and to make sure the passengers aren ’ t afraid to get on board. we therefore need to encourage innovation but also ensure that people trust innovations. at the banque de france, we have taken various steps to promote innovation. first, we appointed a start - up correspondent at the national level [ maurice oms ], and we will soon have start - up correspondents in the regional french tech capitals. the banque de france ’ s innovation laboratory, the lab, is working with numerous actors in the field. this year, we inaugurated a new site in singapore, one of the epicentres of the fintech industry. and recently, paris was selected alongside frankfurt to house the european branch of the bis ’ s innovation hub. at the acpr, we are doing our utmost to facilitate contact with fintechs at all stages. first, there is a single point of entry : the fintech - innovation unit. since 2016, it has met and advised between 100 and 150 project leaders per year, to help them flesh out the initial outline of their project before potentially submitting it for approval. the approval procedure has also been simplified with 1 / 3 bis central bankers'speeches the creation of a digital portal, and we have adapted certain procedures to recent developments : introduction of a streamlined post - brexit procedure in 2019, and of a simplified procedure for a large number of payment service providers ( psps ) in 2020. on top of this, in our day - to - day supervision, we apply the regulation using a proportional approach. for example, for small establishments, we allow a single individual to hold more than one key positions. to give another example, under the transposition of the second european payment services directive ( psd2 ) in 2018, third - party payment service providers – which do not hold client funds – are subject to reduced annual reporting requirements. however, this proportionality does not mean being less demanding, especially with regard to the fight against money laundering. the general principle of “ same activity, same rule ” must apply. indeed, it is in the fintechs ’ own interest that we should help them to apply the regulatory framework. we also want to help

or that some economic sectors will not keep growing. in fact, some sectors, such as renewable energy, must grow if we are to meet this century ’ s formidable ecological challenges. that technological innovations and breakthroughs will eventually solve all our problems, and that we will not have to profoundly change the way we live. some technologies may not materialise quickly enough to prevent uncontrollable and irreversible environmental changes from happening, and solutions that do not rely strictly on technology may also be needed. focusing only on the climate challenge, for instance, reducing energy demand is critical to achieving ambitious mitigation. therefore, even though technological innovation is crucial given the magnitude of the task upon us, we will also need to learn frugality ( for instance by limiting superfluous or conspicuous consumption ), as pope francis'encyclical recommand us for example, or – if you prefer – a form of self ‐ restraint, as emphasised by professor dasgupta in his review on the economics of biodiversity. moreover, while technological innovations will still be crucial to decrease our use of energy and resources, they may not always lead to more production and growth. widespread use of electric bikes for urban transportation, for example, could reduce our dependency on individual cars in urban areas, but by the same token it could also dampen growth prospects in the automobile sector. likewise, technology makes it possible to organise various meetings online rather than have participants travel thousands of kilometres, but a diffusion of such norms could also translate into less growth. my point here is not be exhaustive, but rather to show that framing the debate in simplistic ways ( e. g. by opposing techno ‐ utopians and techno ‐ pessimists, or proponents of “ degrowth ” to proponents of “ green growth ” ) is not constructive lastly, given the well ‐ known limitations of gdp as a measure of well ‐ being, it is also important to bear in mind that the definition of growth itself is bound to evolve in the future. for instance, as recently stressed by professor nicholas stern and co ‐ authors in an imf working paper, 17 we should move from a “ flow ‐ see keyßer, l. t., lenzen, m. ( 2021 ). 1. 5 °c degrowth scenarios suggest the need for new mitigation pathways. nature communications 12, 2676. https : / / doi. org / 10. 1038 / s41467