Looking across the debate, I remain cautiously optimistic that we will be able to come up with a major reform package which delivers all three of the objectives that the government has set for the review. Looking up Now I can feel some of you growing restless in the prudentist’s chair, and it is true that Solvency II pushes my analogy, already somewhat laboured, well past breaking point. So let’s look up at the ceiling instead, where climate change clouds are gathering. I’m not well equipped to tell you how much weight to attach to this summer’s extreme weather events around the world, but they and the findings in the IPCC’s latest report2 have been unnerving. In the meantime we have been busy on our own climate work. Since I last spoke at Mansion House we have published a discussion paper on options for greening the Corporate Bond Purchase Scheme, following a change in the remit of the Monetary Policy Committee; we have published our second annual climate-related financial disclosure report; and, most significantly for the PRA, we have launched our climate change biennial exploratory scenario exercise. Looking ahead the UK will host COP26 in November and we have an important deadline for PRAregulated firms to have embedded our supervisory expectations on managing climate-related financial risks by the end of the year. There is of course a lively debate about whether central banks and regulators should be doing more or less on climate change.
François Villeroy de Galhau: The euro – which way to go? Keynote speech by Mr François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France, at the EconPol Europe (European Network for Economic and Fiscal Policy Research) Founding Conference and first Annual Meeting "The Euro - Which Way to Go? ", Brussels, 9 November 2017. * * * Mr President, Ladies and Gentlemen,1 It is a pleasure to be in Brussels today, which doesn’t happen so often for a central banker… who has just arrived from Frankfurt. I welcome the fact that you at EconPol Europe have chosen the euro as the theme of your founding conference, and invited me to give this keynote speech. Since Maastricht 25 years ago, we have succeeded in building a Monetary Union. However we have not delivered on Economic Union. To avoid overburdening monetary policy, our Union must stand on two feet rather than just one: that is why it is legitimate that we, as central bankers, propose ideas on this subject, even if we are not those who legitimately make decisions. It is now urgent to make concrete progress on Economic Union, all the more so as the economic context is now favourable, as confirmed today by the European Commission. Euro area growth of 2.2% in 2017 should be the highest rate in 10 years, and as strong as in the United States.