share with you three convictions : firstly, the traditional pillars to ensure confidence including trusted third parties, central banks and supervisors, cannot be replaced by " algorithmic " confidence, i. e. by rules of the game that would be coded once and for all and for which respect would be entrusted to algorithms, even if they are encapsulated in " smart contracts "... will the forces pushing towards tokenised and decentralised finance make unbalanced relationships disappear? as well as failing governance mechanisms, the concentration of operational risks, and cyber attacks? in my opinion, the answer is no : trusted third parties, central banks and supervisors are still needed and in my view not about to disappear... 2 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches secondly, and this is a corollary to my first point, confidence requires maintaining central bank money as the anchor of the financial system. finally, confidence requires a regulatory framework that is clear, fair ( " same business, same risk, same rule " ) and balanced, i. e. capable of both encouraging innovation, protecting adequately customers and maintaining the stability of our financial system. the upheavals experienced by the crypto ecosystem and the confidence crisis that has developed from the fallout clearly show from our financial stability authority stand point that the implementation of such confidence prone regulatory framework is urgently needed. europe has led the way in this field, defining a new regulatory framework, known as mica ( markets in crypto assets regulation ). it is important that its implementation takes place as swiftly as possible, within a broader, international effort, building on the high - level recommendations developed by the fsb. 2 / beyond supporting the development and adoption of a confidence prone regulatory framework we can also, as a central bank, play a positive operational role in revisiting the central bank money services we provide with the objective of adapting them to the digital age and the possible associated development of tokenised finance. this is the reason why in 2020, the banque de france launched a large - scale experimentation program on wholesale cbdc with a number of market participants. this program has allowed us to understand better how dlts work and the benefits that are likely to emerge for financial markets. our main motivation is to extend the existing trust in our settlement infrastructure and assets to transactions carried out on dlts. their settlement in central bank money appears essential to guarantee the players in these markets against the counterparty risks inherent with other, private tokenised settlement assets

. the new european dlt pilot regime, which will come into force in march this year, will allow us to continue our experiments within the boundaries of a simplified regulatory framework. at the same time, the banque de france is contributing to the reflection on the possibility of a retail cbdc : this is currently what eurosystem central banks have embarked on, under the ecb aegis, with the ongoing investigation phase for a digital euro. the evolution of the payment landscape leads us to reflect on the ways in which citizens can have access to central bank money, also in the digital world. let me conclude in saying that tokenization can be a blessing or a curse for the functioning of the financial system. it is my belief that we can collectively make the best of it if we ensure its expansion within a framework of confidence in which good regulation has an important role to play. 3 / 3 bis - central bankers'speeches