Speech by Marie-Anne Barbat-Layani, AMF Chair - New Year address to the financial centre - Thursday 18 January 2024

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Members of Parliament (Marie-Pierre Rixain, Stéphanie Yon-Courtin)
Governor of the Banque de France,
The Financial Public Prosecutor (Jean-François Bohnert),
Members of the Board and the Enforcement Committee,
Chair of the Enforcement Committee,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear colleagues,

I am delighted to see so many of you here for the AMF's annual New Year address in Paris. This is the second time I have had the honour of presenting the AMF's New Year address. I presented my roadmap last year as the new Chair. It is now set out in our 2023-2027 strategic plan, and today is an opportunity to talk about the main actions we took in 2023 and those in our action plan for 2024.

First of all, on behalf of the AMF, I would simply like to wish you, your teams and your loved ones an excellent 2024.

At the start of this year, when we and our fellow citizens have many things on our minds, it is our duty, as those in a position of responsibility, to remain calm, mobilised and optimistic.

The start of the year should encourage us to embrace a spirit of renewal and commitment. We must contribute to the success of our country, whose assets and strengths must never be forgotten.

One of these strengths is undoubtedly the fact that we are a powerful and attractive financial centre with integrity and good regulation. At a time when the international environment is becoming tougher, this is a fundamental asset.

Paris is the European Union's leading financial centre.

A top sportsman or woman can only remain so if they train continuously, set new goals and push themselves. At the start of this year, the year of the Paris Olympic Games, I would like to take up the motto of these Games: "Faster, higher, stronger, together".

January is a time for resolutions.

This evening, I will make four of them before you:

• that the Paris financial centre will remain at the forefront. As I said to you last year, first place on the podium implies a duty to set an example. We're committed to this and I'll come back to it.
• that Paris will become even more attractive and that 2024 will be the year of the relaunch of the Capital Markets Union.
• that Paris will be the leading centre for innovation and green finance.
• and that the AMF will always be at the forefront of these developments.

● I have had the opportunity to present this conviction on a regular basis: the quality and rigour of supervision are essential assets for the competitiveness of a financial centre. For us, the regulator, this means staying the course of demanding supervision. And the AMF will be there: Paris must continue to build its success on its integrity and on a form of rigour that has long been reflected in the pursuit of value, as well as in the rigour of its management and regulation.

The AMF has an important role to play in this equation.

Our high standards, in terms of investor protection, investor information and the proper functioning of the market, are the best contribution we can make to the attractiveness and development of the Paris financial centre. And it works.

Two recent examples are Barclays' decision last year to locate its European headquarters in Paris, and Coty's choice of Paris for its dual listing - a very good move at a time when the stock market is looking rather gloomy.

On another note, I hope that Paris will also have the honour of hosting the future Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA).

In 2023, we defined our "Impact 2027" strategic guidelines, which I had the opportunity to talk about recently, at the AMF's 20th anniversary celebrations last November.

We have set ourselves the following objectives:

• be a demanding regulator for Europe's leading financial centre;
• have strong international and European action;
• protect investors and savers;
• promote more sustainable finance;
• support innovation;
• and, as the essential foundation of our action, be an attractive and efficient authority for our employees, serving the general interest.

The AMF is an active regulator. This means using all our tools: monitoring, oversight, supervision, controls and investigations and, where necessary, sanctions.

In 2023, the AMF Enforcement Committee issued 17 decisions and handed down financial penalties totalling nearly €35 million.

The AMF also concluded 10 transactions that we call "administrative settlement agreements", including one agreement involving a commitment to pay the investors concerned a maximum total amount of €7.75 million. It is therefore an interesting tool for protecting investors.

In addition to the repressive aspect, we have pursued our policy of educational SPOT inspections. By publishing a summary of these inspections, we are sending out clear signals about our expectations of the financial centre, and encouraging it to improve its practices.

In 2024, we'll be staying the course. This morning we published our 2024 action and supervision plan, based on our risk analysis. In addition to our traditional inspections, we have selected 7 SPOT inspection themes covering asset management, marketing, intermediaries and market infrastructures.

We need to ensure that our monitoring tools are constantly adapted. We are continuing to modernise our technical tools by investing in data-driven supervision and developing the use of artificial intelligence to serve our missions.

I have also proposed to Bruno Le Maire, the French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, amendments to the law to better guarantee the smooth operation and integrity of financial markets, by giving the AMF modern and rapid means of action.

● A place of integrity and efficiency requires a high level of security and trust.

The role of a leading financial centre is first and foremost to ensure the stability and security of financing and to inspire the confidence of investors and savers.

When it comes to financial stability, we have a collective duty of care. The financial world is faced with multiple uncertainties that are constantly changing.

At the start of this year, the economic and, above all, geopolitical context remains uncertain. We will remain particularly mobilised and I call on all financial players to do likewise.

Rapid changes in interest rates may still have a significant impact on certain assets and markets.

Against this backdrop, we are playing a very active role in the work being done on financial stability at international level. Within the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), we have contributed to the development of international standards for liquidity management in open-ended funds. This is an important issue, not least because investors need to be able to count on fair treatment when markets are under stress. I call for these recommendations to be implemented and remind fund managers of the importance of putting these liquidity management tools in place.

In 2024, this work will continue as part of the G20 roadmap, particularly on the issue of excessive leverage that may exist in certain segments of the non-banking financial industry.

We are also examining the consequences of the accelerating deployment of artificial intelligence.

The AMF has led the IOSCO's work on artificial intelligence. There are many use cases in the financial world, and we can congratulate ourselves on this dynamism. In 2024, we will continue our work to identify the impact of this technology on financial activities and stability, and we are preparing for the implementation of the European regulation on artificial intelligence.

For a financial centre, security also means guarding against cyber risk. Our latest risk mapping exercise highlighted the high level of risk. Last year, we again examined investment management companies' cyber risk prevention systems. We published a summary of our findings a few weeks ago, in anticipation of the implementation of the European regulation on the digital operational resilience of the financial sector (DORA). We have therefore given a clear signal of our expectations. I call on all those involved to be more vigilant about this type of risk, as we will be.

Security and confidence naturally lead me to the protection of retail investors. This is the AMF's top strategic priority. In this area, we're continuing to make progress on all fronts! I won't be able to name them all.

Our action is based in particular on the two pillars of empowering retail investors: financial education and comprehensive, comprehensible product information.

Our financial education strategy is based first and foremost on a sound understanding of investors and their behaviour. Last March, we did a freeze-frame to establish the typical profile of investors active on the stock market in 2022. Incidentally, only 30% of these active investors were women. Gentlemen, the majority of you here today, I can only urge you to take a greater interest in women investors!

We also had the OECD analyse the profile of new investors. This work has shown that cryptoassets now play a predominant role: 7% of French investors hold shares directly and 9% hold crypto-assets; this is a fundamental change. In 2024, the second stage of this work will be to define, on this basis, targeted financial education initiatives.

Good investor information is fundamental.

The AMF is active on a daily basis, maintaining a close dialogue with market participants to ensure that the information provided to investors is accurate, fair and not misleading, that it is appropriate and that it is provided within the deadlines set by the regulations. This daily, often invisible, action is essential and I would like to take this opportunity to highlight it.

In 2023, we worked hard to make fees clearer for retail investors. Following on from the work carried out with the Financial Sector Consultative Committee, we have published a glossary of fees, a grammar book of sorts. This is a key step! We call on professionals to use these clearer, more harmonised terms, which should make it easier for clients to compare offers.

As everyone here knows, the cost of saving is a major daily concern. The French want to prepare for their major life plans: financing their children's education, buying their own home, preparing for retirement, etc. We have a collective duty to provide them with appropriate solutions. This subject is at the heart of the European Retail Investment Strategy project. I've already said that we're paying particular attention to the accessibility and quality of advice, as well as its proximity. This advice has a cost, which must be taken into account.

But it is just as important that the investment is made in the sole interest of the saver, and is tailored to the saver's profile and objectives.

As far as costs are concerned, it is too early to know what the outcome of the work on the concept of value for money will be: this is a matter for political debate. But if they are to succeed, it will be important for this concept to apply to the entire value chain, i.e. to producers as well as distributors of financial products.

Protecting retail investors means fighting scams. In 2023, our actions led to the closure of 125 website addresses and to new additions to our blacklists of unauthorised players or offers.

We're not letting our guard down. Our vigilance is all the more important given that our latest savings and investment barometer shows that 15% of French people surveyed say they have already been the victim of a financial investment scam. This proportion reaches up to 35% among the youngest affected. That's a lot.

In 2024, we will of course continue to work on all these areas. We will be extending our monitoring to social media and influencers.

● In 2024, attractiveness will also be a major issue for the Paris financial centre. The French President has just announced Act II of the 2015 law on economic growth and activity. Bruno Le Maire has announced his intention to present a bill to Parliament on France's financial attractiveness, and parliamentary work is also underway. The AMF obviously supports these discussions and will contribute to them.

These initiatives are essential at a time when, in the run-up to the forthcoming adoption of the Listing Act, several European Union Member States are making competitive changes to their regulations.

This is particularly the case when it comes to multiple voting rights, and it is important for France to remain at the forefront by adopting this option.

The AMF will obviously contribute to this work.

We have also set ourselves the goal of making Paris an attractive location for European long-term investment funds, or ELTIF funds.

These funds should ensure that savers have access to investment opportunities in long-term assets on a European scale, and provide better financing for the economy and undertakings.

I indicated last year that we were committed to avoiding any over-transposition. This will be the case here. We will apply the European standards on ELTIFs and only these standards, in order to create a favourable environment for the creation of these funds in France.

We believe that the competitiveness of the Paris financial centre is essential to the financing of our economy and its transition to a model that is both more sustainable and more innovative. As we know, this requires considerable investment: we therefore need a powerful and useful financial sector to meet these objectives.

We also need deeper European markets, capable of mobilising greater funding, to meet these objectives while ensuring the strategic autonomy of France and the European Union.

I am therefore delighted that more and more people are calling for the relaunch of the Capital Markets Union, which we called for in our strategic plan. Tangible work is underway to identify ways and means of relaunching this essential project, and I welcome the mission that Minister Bruno Le Maire recently entrusted to the Honorary Governor of the Banque de France, Christian Noyer. The AMF will offer its full support. We will be making proposals.

We call for the development of securitisation markets in Europe, with more efficient supervision and a more prominent role for the ESMA.

● Innovation is one of the keys to attractiveness. In its strategic plan, the AMF strongly reaffirmed its position as a regulator open to innovation. This is essential for the attractiveness of the financial centre and is in the AMF's DNA.

I mentioned earlier our involvement in work on artificial intelligence. We are also keeping a close eye on blockchain development projects, which now have a favourable legal framework with the pilot scheme, and on innovative token issue projects (ICOs): the innovation ecosystem is teeming with projects on the Paris financial centre and we are listening to the people behind them.

We have also made it a priority in 2024 to support the implementation of the European regulation on cryptoassets, the MiCA regulation. We encourage interested service providers to prepare as early as possible, and we support them in doing so.

The MICA regulation will enable cryptoasset service providers to obtain a European passport.

It is therefore essential that the high standards we intend to apply to ensure better investor protection are shared with all our European colleagues. We are therefore working hard at European level, at the ESMA, to draw up the implementing regulations for the MiCA regulation, and also to strengthen practical exchanges between supervisors to ensure convergence in the supervision of these players.

But MiCA won't be the end of the road. The international work carried out by the Financial Stability Board on cryptoassets shows that specific risks are borne by global platforms, such as conglomerates.

I join the Governor of the Banque de France, François Villeroy de Galhau, in urging Europe to put itself in a position to implement them, by preparing a MiCA 2 regulation.

● Finance is only sustainable. Finance must contribute to the transition to a more sustainable economy. France has been sending out a strong and unique message in this area since the Paris Agreement. The Paris financial centre has made this a key part of its strategy. It must move forward. Society's expectations are high. The same goes for investors. I want Paris to be the most ambitious financial centre in terms of sustainable finance.

For the AMF, which has made sustainable finance one of its key strategic priorities, 2024 will be synonymous with both more support for industry players and a strengthening of our supervisory action.

In terms of undertakings, we are preparing for a real revolution with the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which is one of the cornerstones of the European Commission's European Green Deal. This regulation introduces much more stringent transparency requirements, including on climate transition plans, and mandatory third-party verification of information.

This is a major development, which should eventually bring the quality of non-financial reporting closer to that of corporate financial reporting.

We will support listed companies as they prepare their first sustainability report for the 2024 financial year.

When it comes to sustainable finance, investors are looking for clear benchmarks. This has led to high expectations in terms of the labelling of financial products. In the world of investment funds, the work carried out at national level on the SRI label, like that undertaken by the ESMA on fund names, should make it possible to better meet investors' expectations.

This will also be a major issue in the review of the SFDR regulation, which we hope will simplify the transparency regime and introduce minimum criteria for sustainable funds.

As regulator, we are responsible for ensuring that sustainable finance regulations are properly implemented, using all the tools at our disposal, including the fight against greenwashing.

We implement this objective on a daily basis through our supervision activities. We make sure that what is sold as "sustainable" really is "sustainable". We obviously do not rule out sanctions in the event of a breach.

In this respect, by publishing the summaries of our thematic audits, we are making our expectations public. As I've already said, we don't take anyone at face value. We announce that there is a speed camera at the side of the road and that the police are not far away.

Once again this year, we carried out a number of educational inspections on sustainable finance. In 2024, we will be checking that investors' sustainability preferences are taken into account in the client journey.

● I've talked a lot about being demanding: this also applies to ourselves. By this I mean the quality of the service provided by the regulator.

Last year I said how important I thought it was for the AMF to pay close attention to its internal organisation and its relations with the financial community.

My first objective is to support the excellence of the AMF's teams and their ability to listen, which is recognised by all.

We have introduced more stringent internal management, with the aim of controlling our budget more effectively, so that we can continue to develop our human capital and our tools. This is not the place to go into detail about the internal actions we have taken or will take in the future to develop our model of excellence in the public interest.

One of the key objectives of our strategic plan is transparency and performance-based management. In 2023, we began an initial overhaul of our performance indicators, which we have linked to our strategic objectives. They are now public.

We will also be conducting more perception studies to better identify and respond to the expectations of the marketplace.

We need to be able to constantly adapt our governance, organisation, tools and human and financial resources.

I know that I can rely on the recognised quality of the AMF's staff and on our Board - which will soon be renewed, as will the Enforcement Committee.

To achieve these objectives, I reiterate how important it is for the AMF to have the budgetary resources it needs to carry out its mission as an independent public authority serving the public interest.

In the Finance Act for 2024, the AMF obtained an increase in its resources, indicating recognition by the public authorities, Government and Parliament, of the importance of its missions and their development.

I hope that the public authorities will continue to give the AMF the resources it needs to carry out its work, and I can assure them that these resources will be put to good use.

As you can see, we have a packed agenda for the year. But I've already said enough. I only hope that I have shared with you the passion that drives us at the AMF.

I'll end with a quote from Jacques Brel: "I hope you will resist the stagnation, indifference and negative virtues of our times." I would now like to invite you to join us at the buffet.