The environmental factor is also being incorporated into the internal ratings used to evaluate the eligibility of banks’ collateral. These initiatives are being carried out in the context of the monetary policy strategy review launched recently by the European Central Bank, which addresses matters related to sustainability. Lastly, just like the CNMV, we participate in various international committees and working groups, be they within the remit of the European Central Bank or within that of the European Systematic Risk Board, the Single Supervisory Mechanism, the European Banking Authority, the Basel Committee or, as I mentioned earlier, the NGFS. We also contribute to raising awareness through publications, conferences and special workshops and through meetings with industry. I would not like to finish without mentioning that we have set up an internal function and commissioned an environmental audit to assess our environmental impact as an institution and to instrument and coordinate measures aimed at reducing this impact. At first sight, it may not seem that a central bank’s activity should have an excessive environmental impact, but I can assure you that managing the waste resulting from the destruction of cash is no small matter. In sum, I believe that the matters discussed at the conference demonstrate two things: first, that supervisors are endeavouring to take resolute action to promote a sustainable transition, and second, that difficulties persist, especially as regards the lack of information, limiting some of our actions. I hope that the legislative initiatives under way provide us with a source of support to continue pressing forward.
For instance, I think of a paper by Freixas, Parigi and Rochet on “Systemic Risk, Interbank Relationships and Liquidity Provision by the Central Bank” published in 2000 in the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking (JMCB). In 2000, that is eight years before the crisis. And yet the paper already underlined the importance of interbank relationships in the spread of risk. Some trends and evolutions in research in economics and in the work of central banks over the last twenty years were also identified and discussed. Obviously globalization and international links have played an ever more important role in monetary and financial economics (including with the creation of the euro for instance). There were also changes in economic research, as more attention was progressively given to actual policy-making. One of the leading examples is perhaps the so-called Taylor rule, which was created to describe the actual behavior of central bankers. This allowed a much richer interaction between academia and policy makers. Changes also affected policy-making, with more attention paid to academic debates. These even influenced the very structure of central banks. Research units were put into place and developed in most major central banks, including the Banque de France, which also implemented an External Evaluation of Research (EER). Central bankers indeed realized the importance of conducting their own research activities to support policy making. Heavier use of theoretical findings and data-based analysis was made, in order for central banks to better articulate their policy actions.