g7, the g20, the financial stability board and the committee on payments and market infrastructures, particularly on crypto - assets and enhancing cross - border payments. we are also supporting the european strategies on digital finance and retail payments published by the commission in the final quarter of 2020 and especially the two flagship initiatives, namely the draft markets in crypto - assets ( mica ) regulation and the future digital operational resilience act ( dora ) regulation on operational risks in the financial sector. 2 / be involved as a participant in the evolution of payment systems however, adapting the regulatory framework will not be enough. at the banque de france, we believe we also need to be part of the evolution of payment systems by pursuing, at this stage, two goals : facilitate and experiment. as regards the first of these goals, we want to build on the major integration projects that have come before and promote the emergence of european initiatives that can strengthen europe ’ s payment market. right now, just one initiative looks capable of providing a satisfactory response to the challenges : the european payments initiative, or epi. with this initiative now under way, we feel that it is vital for epi to make good on its promises. on the experimental front, the banque de france is currently conducting a programme exploring the use of a central bank digital currency ( cbdc ) to settle interbank transactions, to assess to what extent and under what conditions such a currency could make the settlement of financial - asset transactions safer and more efficient, while at the same time preserving the fundamental role of central bank money in the proper execution of these transactions. the banque de france is also playing a very active role in the eurosystem work, under the aegis of the ecb, on a retail digital euro. an ecb report published in october 2020 said that the eurosystem should get prepared for the swift introduction of a retail digital euro should the need arise. the eurosystem held a public consultation that closed in late january, attracting over 8, 000 responses. the input from this will inform the meticulous examination of the reasons, consequences and prerequisites for the potential introduction of a cbdc that we are conducting. a first report will be presented by summer 2021 to the governing council, which will then decide whether to extend the analytical work by carrying out an investigatory phase. in the end, the challenge is to determine whether and in what way a central bank digital euro is necessary. key

to ensure that relationships with bigtech firms are included. this is because the potential network effects enjoyed by bigtech payment solutions and the upstream payment chain positions of these firms could create risks of competitive distortion, particularly in situations where these participants also provide hardware or software components. users could find themselves effectively captives of an ecosystem and left with no choice in terms of payment service, or at least be influenced by bigtech firms to use their services at the expense of competitors. this market power might also lead to high fees for payment transactions that could reduce the revenues – and hence the innovative capabilities – of partner banks. c. consolidate european integration and sovereignty in the area of payments the limits of europe ’ s integration and sovereignty in the area of payments have been highlighted once again by the entry of tech giants into the field of payments and the emergence of a systemically important project such as the libra / diem initiative, which could see non - european participants providing new solutions on the european market. although implementation of the single euro payments area ( sepa ) project was beneficial in supporting defragmentation for credit transfers and direct debits, non - european participants have been able to leverage regulatory harmonisation in their efforts to conquer the entire european market, whereas domestic participants have struggled to expand beyond their country of origin. meanwhile, european integration in the area of card payments has failed. the so called international card schemes exclusively manage all cross - border payments within the european union, not to mention a large share of domestic payments. this situation has created a dependency with multiple consequences. i am talking particularly about the definition and control of technical standards, financial aspects, but also challenges related to payment data, i. e. our capacity to protect these data and enforce compliance with european standards such as the gdpr, if decision - making centres are based outside europe. ii / what is the banque de france doing? 2 / 4 bis central bankers'speeches to help to meet these challenges, we at banque de france are focusing our activities around two main areas : 1 / support and implement regulatory frameworks and supervisory practices that promote innovation and the stability of our financial system most of the current regulatory framework predates the technological breakthroughs that we are now facing. accordingly, it makes sense to adjust the regulatory framework to these technological developments, the challenges they present and the attendant risks. the same naturally applies to our supervisory framework and methods. for this reason, we are actively involved in multilateral cooperation work, such as the