Denis Beau: Digital transformation and financial system turbulence - what lessons for regulators and supervisors?

Speech by Mr Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, at ESIGELEC (school of engineering), Rouen, 25 May 2023.

The views expressed in this speech are those of the speaker and not the view of the BIS.

Accompanying slides of the speech. 

Dear Professors, dear students. I am very pleased to have the opportunity of sharing with you some of the lessons that we at the Banque de France and the ACPR, under our financial stability mandate, have learned from the recent turbulence that has affected the international financial system.

This turbulence, which has impacted both traditional financial players in the wake of the SVB bankruptcy and players in the "new digital finance" ecosystem in the wake of the FTX bankruptcy, results from the realisation of risks, whose impact has been amplified or whose spread throughout the financial system has been sped up, by digital innovations that are transforming at high speed, or even shaking up, the way in which finance works.

While the effect of this turbulence on the financial system as a whole and the real economy seems to be contained for the time being, the impact of digital innovations raises questions as to the regulation and supervision practices of both traditional finance and the emerging digital finance. I propose presenting these questions to you one after the other, together with the answers that I believe to be appropriate.