For incumbent players, this represents an existential challenge, and innovation is the only effective response. This digital revolution also means we have to strengthen our methods of regulation to deal with the Bigtechs, which are now an unavoidable feature of the market but are still on the margins of existing regulation. We need cross-border cooperation, but also cooperation that is cross-field, with authorities in competition, data protection and cybersecurity. The FSB, BIS and OECD should muster forces on this. Cyber risk, in particular, is more than ever in the spotlight, with the accelerating digitalisation of services and increased use of teleworking. In parallel, European banks must unite resolutely in the field of payments, and rapidly develop a shared offering: there is no alternative to the EPI, European Payment Initiative. This digital revolution is also putting creative pressure on our supervisory practices. Let me reiterate here that Fintechs are very welcome in the French financial landscape, and have the right to an open and attentive dialogue with the ACPR, including in the Fintech-Innovation Unit created in 2016. Artificial intelligence is providing fertile experimental ground for our interactions. In fact, the ACPR is organising its first techsprint on 30 June and 1 July this year. This friendly competition will invite participants to invent tools to explain the algorithms of tomorrow, using credit risk models. The call for applications is being published today on the ACPR website, and I invite all players in the field of AI to take part.
The measures needed to respond to these issues can only be effective at the European level. Not everything is working well in Europe and it begs a discussion. Italy, as a founding member of the EU and as the third economy of the euro area, needs to be part of it. What do you think of the proposals for reform made by Macron? I don’t want to comment on what the French President says. He has sparked a debate on the future of Europe, and every country should get involved. If European leaders focus only on domestic politics, this inward-looking attitude can only make Europe weaker. A return to the previous era of globalisation without barriers is unlikely, isn’t it? This is indeed unlikely. And that’s good news, since the reason we are experiencing problems today is that globalisation didn’t deliver on its promises. As Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa once said: “Those people who complain that we won’t get back to the pre-crisis path forget that it was the very path that led to that crisis”. We are currently undergoing a very disorderly transition and there is a temptation to turn to nationalist ideas, when one of the great successes to emerge in the aftermath of the Second World War was the creation of an international order based on trust. Change is needed; for instance, we were naive about opening up international financial flows.