Currently, we can only see a very small number of major market players establishing ecosystems who are shifting towards new business models. I should say that ecosystems are certainly attractive for clients enabling them to receive almost everything a person needs every day in a single environment, in one application. However, we are well aware of the risks inherent in such ecosystems as banks are investing depositors’ funds in new businesses, in their expansion. Returns on these businesses may be both lower and later than expected by the bank being the centre of an ecosystem and financing its evolution. Therefore, we need to protect depositors’ and investors’ interests because those who place their funds with banks should certainly be confident that this money would not be affected by the actual profits of an online cinema or even an online cinema network owned by their banks. Another challenge posed by ecosystems is a potential abuse of dominance, and not only in the financial market. Furthermore, this may also affect the development of several sectors and, eventually, product prices and quality for end consumers. Therefore, we raised this issue long ago, and we have started to develop ecosystem regulation approaches we will be discussing with you, as Anatoly Aksakov has already mentioned. This year, we are going to publish a consultation paper on the regulation of banks developing ecosystems, which will become the first step towards the start of our joint efforts with the market community aimed at devising ecosystem regulation approaches.
Christian Noyer: Demographic shifts – threats or opportunities? Opening remarks by Mr Christian Noyer, Governor of the Bank of France and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank for International Settlements, at the Montreal conference: “Demographic shifts – threats or opportunities?”, Montreal, 11 June 2012. *  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, It is a real pleasure for me to open this session of the Montreal conference on demographic shifts. I am no demographics expert, you know, but I will try to give my opinion of central banker on this extremely important matter. There is no major uncertainty as to the demographic shifts that are in progress. We already have a clear idea of the likely demographic trends for the coming decades and, even more importantly, of their age and geographical breakdowns. We must capitalise on this knowledge to analyse the potential impacts of these shifts and determine how they could contribute to decision-making. In that regard, I would like to raise a few points that are relevant to central bankers. I will focus on the case of developed countries and more particularly on Europe, where demographic developments are mainly driven by the combination of longer life expectancy and a low fertility rate. As regards the latter, it is comforting to note that this rate in France and Canada is less problematic than those in most economies of the same group. When considering demographic developments, much attention is paid, legitimately, to public debt issues.