-  After this first contact, and once the Fintechs had started the actual  authorisation or registration process, the average time taken to ensure their applications were complete and decide on their legal classification was in line with the Charter – two to three weeks depending on the legal status – although  Page 3 of 5 for a third of cases it took longer; this was notably due to the sharp rise in applications (up 20% on last year). -  Once an application had been submitted, the deadline for examining it  was met in 84% of cases, with the average time standing at 12 days – less than the average of 17 days it took for applicants to respond! We are therefore well on the way to meeting the ambitious target deadlines set out in the Fintech Charter. This allows us to respond to the first criticism levelled against us: the lack of visibility over the application procedure and the amount of time they take. We shall continue our efforts to ensure we gradually get closer to our target deadlines, and not just in average terms (we have already met it this year), but for all individual cases. II. In France and Europe, we need to keep pace with the digital transformations under way Our attention is focused in particular on another aspect of the digital evolution: crypto-assets.
Our institutions – such as the Banque de France’s Lab, its Infrastructure, Innovation and Payments Directorate (DIIP), the ACPR’s Fintech-Innovation Unit, with its ACPR-AMF Fintech Forum – are fully mobilised to facilitate these initiatives and help them grow. Among these initiatives, three in particular are worth highlighting. First, those in the field of instant payments, which open a new chapter in the payments industry. Second, the continuing development of open banking, thanks to the European financial sector’s work on APIs. Last but not least, the European Payments Initiative (EPI) which will provide European citizens with a pan-European solution for everyday payments, via both a payment card and a smartphone, covering all retail use cases. With some major decisions scheduled to be taken this autumn for the actual launch of EPI, I would like to remind you here that the Banque de France fully supports this initiative, alongside the other Eurosystem national central banks and the European Commission. We are counting on you all, as participants in the financial ecosystem, to make this unique opportunity for European payments into a reality. C) We are also actively supporting financial innovation by conducting an ambitious experimentation programme for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) Several central banks have begun working seriously on the idea of issuing a CBDC, if it were to prove necessary, to preserve the anchoring role of central bank money in the digital era.