François Villeroy de Galhau: New Year wishes to the Paris financial centre

Madam Minister, Ladies and gentlemen Presidents and Secretaries General,

Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends,

First, alongside the Banque de France and the ACPR, I would like to extend our warmest wishes to you, our day-to-day partners: public officials and elected representatives, the financial community and entrepreneurs, journalists. Thank you for being here, on behalf also of Denis Beau, Jean-Paul Faugère and Nathalie Aufauvre. The past year can be summed up with the simple phrase: "Private happiness, public disorder". For 2026, I wish you and your loved ones much personal happiness. As for the public disorder, it would be risky to expect it to diminish; but I wish us all the courage to remain steadfast in our state duties and to uphold our convictions. Resilience and hope are undoubtedly the two leading virtues of our time; in recent years we have strengthened the former, so let us hold on to the latter for the future.

To start with, a quick look back at 2025 by returning to three wishes I made before you last year and that have come true. First, I wished for a year of key rate cuts in Europe and that we might reach the neutral rate of around 2% by the summer of 2025: that's precisely where we've been since June last year. Second, an initial – modest – decline in France's deficit, to 5.4% of GDP for 2025: that should be the case. Lastly, a year without recession: French growth has proved resilient, albeit insufficient, at 0.9%, despite the instability in our political landscape and in the international environment. Credit for this should go above all to the tenacious commitment of our entrepreneurs and the work of the French people. I commend them, as well as the mobilisation of our financial system – banks and insurers – at their service, which is one of France's strengths. The recovery in lending for house purchases, with a 35% rise in new loans in 2025, is an example of this.