François Villeroy de Galhau: Financial markets - what innovations for the Paris financial centre?

Speech by Mr François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France, at the Bank of France conference, Paris, 25 May 2018.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Welcome to the Banque de France. Talking about innovation in the markets at the Banque de France may seem surprising given the Bank’s 218 years of history. However, even if the Banque de France’s tasks adhere to a long tradition, the current financial environment compels us to speed up financial innovation. We don’t very often speak about these topics as they are technical and sometimes deemed austere, but they are essential to the smooth financing of the economy and also to the Paris financial centre. And so it is what we, with Nathalie Aufauvre, Alain Duchateau and the teams at the DGSO, wish to discuss at this morning’s symposium. I would like to open with some thoughts on why we should speed up financial innovation and how the Banque de France is contributing.

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I – Why we should speed up financial innovation

Three major forces are at work in Europe to enhance the capital markets’ ability to finance innovation: