In the recent health crisis, our banking sector was also able to meet businesses’ financing and cash flow needs, and to contribute very actively to the roll-out of support measures decided by the government and the European Central Bank. The issue that needs to be addressed for the future is that of the “hybridisation” of these traditional players and “disruptive” players, rather than the replacement of one by the other. In the upcoming reshuffling of cards, there is therefore room for cooperation as a key factor of development. At this point, I feel I must mention the future role of Big Techs. I will not dwell on this issue, on which the Banque de France has expressed itself on many occasions. I will simply make the observation that the entry of Big Techs into the European financial sector has, so far, been neither rapid nor dramatic. However, thanks to their technological mastery, their interest in the financial sector and their huge customer base, Big Techs are key players in future transformations. Regulators must naturally take this into account. 2/4  BIS central bankers' speeches  I would like to mention one last area of future developments: that of good practices. These are essential for maintaining confidence, but they are often slower to implement than the innovations themselves. We, as supervisors, have a role to play here. Beyond simply setting “rules” and monitoring their implementation, we can contribute to the implementation of “sound” practices in new business models.
I have on many occasions, at monetary policy meetings and in speeches, put forward the view that policy rate adjustments should normally be made gradually as a result of the uncertainty connected to forecasts and economic statistics. The well-known economists Orphanides and Williams say in an essay that this uncertainty indicates that one should not allow monetary policy to be influenced by contradictory information and statistics that are constantly revised. 10 Instead, one should normally allow monetary policy to change gradually. This limits the impact of contradictory information and statistics that are often revised. Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan, said “Uncertainty is not just an important feature of the monetary landscape; it is the defining characteristic of that landscape.” I can only agree with him. 10  Orphanides, Athanasios and John C. Williams, “Robust Monetary Policy Rules with Unknown Natural Rates”, Brooking Papers on Economic Activity (2002), pp. 63–118. BIS central bankers’ speeches  9