But I must stress the urgency here: we don’t have much time left, one or two years. Everybody is talking about a CBDC; but first, and much earlier, we need to regulate crypto-assets, and then implement EPI. The third and final action: be ready to launch a general purpose CBDC, which means for the public and for the financial sector, to reassert the anchoring role of central bank money in case of need. Let me insist on the dual purpose: public attention is naturally focused on a retail digital currency, for individuals and firms. But a “wholesale” or “interbank” form is also important, particularly as the use cases are already even more obvious, and because this interbank money will be vital for cross-border transactions. The next investigation phase and technological prototypes selected by the Eurosystem will, in my view, need to cover both these functions, separately or together. The results of the ECB’s public consultation, published mid-April, show that European citizens regard two aspects as particularly important: privacy and security. Therefore, the retail CBDC would be made available to citizens as an easy-to-use, secure and accessible payment instrument, that protects user privacy and can be used for all types of payment. How would it be distributed? We want to develop a model where CBDC is distributed by intermediaries, to allow private players, first and foremost the banking sector, to keep a key role. Let me be clear on this: it is not the Banque de France’s or any Central Bank’s role to open bank accounts!
At that date, the Governing Council will decide on whether to launch a digital euro. We will then need a few years of serious preparatory work to turn an e-euro into reality. * Let me say it again: on both digital currency and payments, we in Europe must be ready to move as quickly as needed or risk an erosion of our monetary sovereignty – something we cannot tolerate. European citizens must have access durably to effective and independent means of exchange. Recent experience in another field shows that we can do it. Six years ago, there was almost no climate policy among central bankers. Today it has become an important topic with concrete technical advances. I could have spoken of another “road for the future”: green finance. Here also, France and Europe have a strong initial advantage: Paris is home to the global secretariat of the NGFS with about 100 members now; its financial centre participants are ahead in their disclosure of and commitments regarding climate-related risks; France is the  first European country in terms of outstanding of green bonds. And last month, the French ACPR published the first climate pilot exercise worldwide actively involving both the banking and insurance sectors.