The assets managed by their foreign subsidiaries are estimated to be worth more than € trillion, adding to the € trillion euro managed out of Paris. Finally, with regard to the regulatory aspects, and to meet international requirements, France believes that regulation is a major competitive driver. First because trust, investor protection and market robustness are essential and, second, because the regulatory process and better regulation principles are worked out to accompany financial innovation in accordance with prudential principles. Our regulators are taking driving initiatives to harmonise the European regulatory framework and facilitate the integration of the European financial market in order to increase its critical mass and therefore its efficiency even for non-European investors and issuers. That is why also the French market is continually being upgraded to the highest standards of ethics and corporate governance so that French companies comply with best international practices. Ladies and Gentlemen, As we can see, globalization and structural changes are driving all of us to conduct business in a different way and offer new and major opportunities, especially through the development of crossborder activities. In this context, Paris EUROPLACE is a key player at the European and global level and the Paris financial center currently offers the best opportunities and environment to invest in Europe. Let me conclude by mentioning that Paris EUROPLACE is today launching a financial services cluster dedicated to financial innovation and the development of new value added projects between academic research and industrial companies with the participation of market professionals, universities and research centers.
Today, Europe consists of 27 countries representing a market of around 500 million consumers: the largest domestic market in the world in terms of purchasing power. The acceleration of the integration of European financial markets has radically transformed the international financial environment. All activities are concerned. Regarding bond markets, European debt instruments issued in euro on international markets are now quite comparable to those denominated in dollars. If we take into consideration bonds issued on external markets by “non euro area resident” companies, foreign governments and multilateral institutions, we can observe that in 2006, total issues of international bonds and notes in euro represented an outstanding of an equivalent of 1,200 billion (USD) against 1,000 billion (USD) in dollars. BIS Review 51/2007  1  This fact shows that the euro market has grown considerably since the beginning of the 2000s and today constitutes for corporates and governments a vast, safe and liquid source of funds, wider than that of the US dollar. While the US dollar remains dominant as an international reserve currency (65% of international official reserves against 24% for the euro), bond markets have become bipolar with the euro playing a leading role. European equity markets have constantly developed since the 80s although they remain smaller than those of the United States. In terms of ratios of market capitalisation to the GDP of the countries, euro area equity markets represented 55 % in 2005, while those of the United States amounted to 105 % and Japan to 85 %.