This is the main reasoning behind the strengthening of our forward guidance, which we reasserted yesterday at the Governing Council. We now foresee that the ECB’s floor rate will remain at its current level of -0.5% or lower, until there is a lasting convergence in the inflation outlook towards a rate that is sufficiently close to, but below, 2%. The low interest rates, and even the negative interest rates, are nothing new: what  Page 3 of 6  is new is that the low interest rates are going to continue, and have to continue, given the global economic cooldown. The current low interest rate environment also has positive effects that must not be underestimated. If the ECB had not acted to bring down interest rates and purchase assets, there would have been between 1 and 1.5 percentage point of inflation less in the euro area during the 2015-18 period, but above all there would have been less growth (of approximately 2.5 percentage points) and fewer jobs in France and Europe. The insurance profession, like banks, benefits from this improved economic environment. Since 2013, the euro area has created 11 million jobs. Mario Draghi, whose term comes to a close next Thursday, has been far more than a great ECB president. He has been a great servant of Europe. B. This low rate environment calls for vigilance and adaptation Nonetheless, and this is an undeniable fact as it is mechanical, low rates are putting pressure on European insurers’ SCR coverage ratios.
Unit-linked policies accounted for more than a quarter of gross inflows in September 2019, but only 7% of net inflows. This discussion is relevant for new subscriptions; for top-up payments into existing policies, the terms of the contract must of course continue to apply. With regard to new policies and new ad hoc inflows, these should not lead to the returns paid to existing policyholders being overly diluted. The duty of advice applies here: it has to be tailored to the individual client and to their particular situation, but it is rarely good advice to invest 100% in euro funds or 100% in unit-linked policies. So I am asking you to use your innovative capacity and promote offerings that, alongside eurocroissance and retirement savings, could make up a category of investments where the risk is contained, somewhere between euro products and unit-linked policies. At the ACPR, we are fully prepared to facilitate these initiatives, by supporting any demands for regulatory adjustments that might prove necessary, and without ruling out a recalibration of the tax rules applicable to different products. But more broadly, over the medium-term, it is life insurers’ business model that needs to be redesigned. We need to think about this together, and get ready to use all the levers that can help in this transformation. II. Our ambition for the Solvency II review  I would like to turn now to your second major concern: Solvency II.