This success shows that regulation of crypto players and  Page 3 sur 5 crypto assets and more broadly of payments is one course of action where a “pragmatic” or “focused” multilateralism can, and must, still deliver. To avoid further payments fragmentation, there are two imperatives: (i) let us keep coordinated. I am sometimes impressed by the growing number of international bodies which play in the “crypto-regulations” orchestra; we need a strong, single conductor, and that should be the FSB (ii) let us implement in all jurisdictions. The current moment calls less for further global reflection or ever refining of taxonomies of financial tokens, and more for decisions and the monitoring of basic, consistent and robust national regulations. II. Central banks have their own driver’s seat in innovation Digital technologies are profoundly transforming finance: from artificial intelligence, API and mobile apps for the development of open banking and of the “banking-as-a-service”, to distributed ledger technology and smart contracts. We are certain to see a significant development of tokenised and decentralised finance. In such a context, our stance at the Banque de France is both to support regulatory reforms and to play an active innovative role. The Banque de France has been using blockchain for several years now. In 2017, we were the very first central bank worldwide to implement a blockchain solution to manage, together with commercial banks, a repository of creditors.
Over the past two years, the Banque de France has therefore been looking into a wholesale CBDC with a view to contribute to Eurosystem’s efforts in designing and developing it when the time comes. And this time could come sooner than expected, with the upcoming entry into application of the European Pilot Regime  Page 5 sur 5 in early 2023 - only six months from now. This new regulation provides a framework for market players to experiment the use of blockchain in real-life conditions to issue and trade tokenised securities. It also offers a unique opportunity for the Eurosystem to conduct its own “pilot regime”, in close cooperation with private players. Without overpromising on that pilot wholesale CBDC, we have to seize the opportunity to try out various solutions from 2023 onwards. Learning by doing is the best way to acquire knowledge. In that spirit, since 2020, the Banque de France has been conducting experiments with a wide range of partners to develop its expertise, with the aim of providing that expertise to the Eurosystem. Our first nine experiments have already delivered key insights, shared in a report published in November last year. Considering these promising results, we have decided to launch a new series of three experiments. You will learn more on them in the coming weeks, but let me already give a few insights today.