Denis Beau: What will tomorrow's post-trading industry look like and what forms of cooperation will it deploy?

Opening address by Mr Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the Bank of France, at the Euroclear "CMU and Innovation" Conference, Paris, 3 October 2024.

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

Ladies and gentlemen,

In a tougher and more fragmented world, an increasing body of analyses and reports are identifying Europe's vulnerabilities – especially in the economic and financial sphere – and proposing ways of remedying these by leveraging and consolidating our key competitive advantages.

These levers include Europe's financial firepower, which is not currently commensurate with its economic heft, even though it has to contend with major investment requirements for two necessary transformations in the digital and climate spheres that hold immense promise for the future.

From this perspective, the post-trading industry has a key role to play in harnessing these new digital technologies and processes which are developing before our eyes and transforming our financial system.

From my perspective as a central banker, tasked with overseeing the efficiency and security of the post-trading infrastructures that are so crucial to the stability of our financial system, these innovations constitute both opportunities and risks. Their deployment therefore raises strategic and operational questions that we need to answer collectively if we are to ensure that tomorrow's post-trading infrastructures safeguard the competitiveness and sovereignty of our financial system, while maintaining the stability that the legislator has tasked us with preserving. This raises the following two questions in particular:

What will the post-trading services industry look like in the wake of these transformations?