This system will have much greater functionality including the potential for such synchronisation which we are now actively exploring with the London centre of the BIS Innovation Hub. At present, given where we are on in the UK on the imminent implementation of a vastly more capable RTGS system these options look to provide a faster route to settlement of tokenised transactions in central bank money and are working with industry on how to best exploit the possibilities of the RTGS system [22]. But we will continue to remain closely engaged with all the options. As with retail payments, it is difficult to forecast now what will prove the more successful approaches. It is most likely that, as is not uncommon with technological development, a range of approaches will eventually be implemented and will co-exist. We have a variety of payment systems, both wholesale and retail, of different vintages operating in the UK today. I would guess that in the future, as new technologies take hold we will see both more innovation and more variety. Changes in how we pay for things and what type of money we use is an exciting area of possibility for the Fintech world. It is also a fundamental issue for the Bank of England – as a regulator, as the provider of the central high value payment rails and the issuer of the highest quality, public money in the UK.
François Villeroy de Galhau: Insurance and pensions – institutional innovation, economic innovation, technological innovation Speech by Mr François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France, at the7th annual EIOPA Conference, Frankfurt am Main, 22 November 2017. * * * Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure to be in Frankfurt today for this 7th Annual EIOPA Conference and I wish to warmly thank EIOPA’s Chairman Gabriel Bernardino for his kind invitation. I must say that I feel at home, since we are not far away from the ECB building where I take part in the meetings of the Governing Council at least every two weeks. But today I will speak in my capacity as President of the French supervisory authority, the Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR), which belongs to the board of supervisors of EIOPA, and which is in charge of the supervision of both insurance companies and banks in France. This is an important responsibility as the French insurance market is the second largest in the European Union, just behind the United Kingdom, with an aggregated balance sheet of approximately EUR 2,600 bn. Given that I am speaking before the panel dedicated to innovation, I will take this opportunity to focus on three kinds of innovation, which in my view can lead us to rethink insurance and pensions: institutional innovation, economic innovation and technological innovation. 1. Institutional innovation Let me start with institutional innovation.