Denis Beau: From open banking to open finance Speech by Mr Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, at the France Payments Forum “The Europe of banking and financial services” – Paris Europlace – France Innovation, Paris, 24 March 2022. * * * Technological innovations, changes in demand, the arrival of new players: the changes underway in the financial sector are providing a strong impetus to relax the conditions of access to the market, in order to foster competition and thus encourage the development of new, more efficient and less costly services. In Europe, in the field of payments, this relaxation has already occurred. The EMD, the PSD1 and finally the PSD2 directives have all resulted in the emergence of more agile players, particularly in terms of data exploitation. The pressure to open up data now extends to insurance and savings: after open banking, we now speak of open finance. This pressure calls for further adapting the regulatory framework. But what should our guiding principles be? In the payments sector, the main objective of the directives I mentioned was to reconcile openness and security. While this challenge remains relevant for the transition from open banking to open finance, with digitalisation and the development of the platform economy, we have seen two other challenges emerge: reconciling innovation and integration on the one hand and competition and sovereignty on the other.
Andréa M Maechler: Developments on the financial markets and Swiss National Bank’s experience with negative interest in Switzerland Introductory remarks by Ms Andréa M Maechler, Member of the Governing Board of the Swiss National Bank, at the media news conference of the Swiss National Bank, Berne, 16 June 2016. *  *  *  I will begin with a review of developments on the financial markets, before commenting on our experience of negative interest in Switzerland. I shall conclude with some remarks about important innovations affecting financial market infrastructure relevant to the SNB. Situation on financial markets Let me start with developments on the financial markets. Risk sentiment deteriorated markedly at the beginning of 2016 due to weak economic data worldwide and a sharp decline in oil prices. Volatility increased temporarily during this period, leading to significant losses on the equity markets (slide 1). In mid-February, investors’ risk appetite returned for a time, thanks to a stabilisation of oil prices and, in particular, improved economic data in the US, China and the euro area. However, by the beginning of June, investor confidence had once again come under pressure due to concerns about a possible exit of the UK from the EU. With the exception of the US and the emerging markets, the major share indices are trading significantly lower than at the beginning of the year. This turbulence caused many market participants to seek refuge in safe investments. Yields declined substantially on the major government bond markets.