christian noyer : “ the brussels agreement is sound ” – interview with le telegramme interview with mr christian noyer, governor of the bank of france and chairman of the board of directors of the bank for international settlements, in le telegramme, published on 15 december 2011. * * * does the brussels agreement protect the euro area over the long term? i believe it is a sound agreement. it includes rules of governance that had been missing up until now. of course, we had the stability and growth pact, but it was of an inadequate legal standard, and it was not complied with as it should have been. setting up clear rules of governance that are sound in substance and that will be integrated into the constitutions and organic laws of member states is a good solution that should provide us with lasting protection. what would be the consequences of france losing its triple - a rating? i do not know what rating agencies will do. what i see is that these agencies have managed, through their criticisms, to weaken the positive sentiment that prevailed on markets after the brussels summit. in addition, downgrading france ’ s credit rating does not seem justified when considering economic fundamentals. otherwise agencies should start by downgrading the united kingdom which has larger deficits, the same level of debt, more inflation and a lower growth rate than us as well as slumping credit. what is the legitimacy of these rating agencies? agencies have become totally incomprehensible and irrational. they make threats, even though member states have taken strong and positive decisions. rating agencies behave as if nothing had happened. it may seem that agencies are no longer a useful guide for investors. would you say that their judgments are based on political criteria? indeed, in the arguments they develop, there are more political arguments than economic ones. credit agencies have downgraded the ratings of three large french banks. are our banks undercapitalised? no, they are very well capitalised, in particular compared to their european and us counterparts. the importance of this downgrade should not be overstated especially since rating agencies have recently downgraded most large banks in developed countries. there is no doubt that the capital buffers of our banks are largely adequate in relation to levels in the global banking system. it is true that we are asking them to enhance their soundness in order to meet the new regulatory requirements that have been agreed at the european and global level. banks are doing this through their own resources and needless to say

which was already well above the 10 - year average2. we are hopefully all concerned about the delays in implementing the paris agreement. the banque de france has conducted simulations on the basis of macro - financial scenarios developed by the ngfs, the network for greening the financial system : a late and disorderly transition would have far more adverse effects, ranging between 10 % and 20 % of world gdp by the end of the century ( compared with up to 7 % of gdp for an orderly transition ). beyond cop26, globally coordinated governmental forward - looking guidance is therefore necessary to anchor concrete and credible commitments, such as the one taken by the european union in its fit for 55 programme. and yes, policies to fight climate change should imperatively include an appropriate carbon price. be assured that central banks will do everything they can do. the ecb monetary policy strategy review, concluded last summer under president lagarde ’ s leadership, sets out an ambitious action plan leading up to 2024. but central banks and, beyond, financial intermediaries cannot substitute for adequate – and sometimes difficult – public policies. the green transition does hold risks – including for inflation –, but it also offers economic and financial opportunities, as new technologies gradually reach scalability. the sooner we start, the more positive ( or the less negative ) the economic balance will be. 2 / let me now turn to the second major transformation underway : the digital transformation. here, europe is still lagging behind the united states and china. it is of the utmost importance to remain at the technological frontier in order to reap the benefits of innovation in terms of productivity and growth, as the winner often takes all. beyond the economic fallouts, it is also a matter of strategic autonomy. these disruptions are also reflected in the monetary, financial and payments spheres – which we scrutinize as central banks and supervisors –, where digitalisation is bringing about a triple revolution – and it is far from over : ( i ) first, the arrival of new players : new actors born from the tech world – fintechs and bigtechs – are challenging historical players with radically new approaches to financial services and at present much less regulation ; ( ii ) second, the emergence of new assets : crypto - assets from the blockchain universe in the form of tokens : they will not be credible as “ crypto - currencies ”, but could be used as settlement means – think of stablecoins for instance